It's a sad story to read: U.S. soldiers charged with murder in Iraq over the deaths of civilians in Haditha. I'm sure, over time, we're going to read stories about the accused--how they were regular guys, probably loved animals and were solid family people and pillars of their community...or certainly some of them. i'm not excusing their conduct--but I can see how the completely crazy war in Iraq created the conditions for these guys to go off and kill people, if they are found to have done so.
Which made me immediately think of the importance of pushing for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney. For all those who argue that it's time to move on, I would list the hundreds of thousands of dead and add on the lives of the accused Marines. The president initiated this ugly war. He is the one that needs to be held accountable, as do the grunts who pulled the trigger in Haditha.
And here is the problem. I have friends who have been over there, but let's be frank: soldiers in general, like cops and other armed enforcers of the state, are trained to torture, kill the innocent and repress. My Lai wasn't an isolated incident anymore than Amadou Diallo's slaying was. And this isn't either.
But the responsibility does not solely lay with the soldiers who perpetrate these crimes on the ground. Indeed, some of the repent too late afterwards, and among them have been friends of mine. And it doesn't simply ly at the top where the orders and plans are carved and the lies are scripted. It lies in systemic problems. Our military's underlying concepts are wrong, and from thence come all the crimes and atrocities that we find.
In other parts of the world, workers often know this, and that is why they shut down industries to obstruct their war machines. In England still today, workers damage production and sabotage transit to stifle the military industrial complex.
Posted by: union militant | December 24, 2006 at 12:51 PM