War Crime or Good Insurgency PR

Another article where the evil Marines are murdering civilians. Another investigation in the works.

A videotape taken by an Iraqi shows the aftermath of an alleged attack by U.S. troops on civilians in their homes in a western town last November: a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and bullet holes on the walls.

An Iraqi human rights group condemned the bloodshed in the town of Haditha, saying Tuesday that it could be "one of dozens of incidents that were not revealed."

and

The images were broadcast a day after residents of Haditha, 140 miles west of Baghdad, told The Associated Press that American troops entered homes and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.

Last week, the U.S. military announced that a dozen Marines are under investigation for possible war crimes in the Nov. 19 incident, which left at least 23 Iraqis dead in addition to the Marine.

Talal al-Zuhairi, who heads the Baghdad Center for Human Rights, said his organization feared the troops, if convicted, will not be punished severely enough.

and

The allegations against the Marines were first brought forward by Time, though the magazine noted that the available evidence did not prove conclusively that the Marines deliberately killed innocents.

The magazine said it obtained the video, taken by a Haditha journalism student inside the houses and local morgue, two months ago.

Nice article. Lots of yelling that the Marines will be let off for the atrocities, but no actual evidence that they committed any. Read the whole article and tell me that it's not bent against the troops irrespective of the little quote above.

Note also that the film has been broadcast in the Iraqi media with no proof of their context or veracity. Doesn't this have the slightest wiff of a lesson learned in Vietnam? Make sure the press reports our military as monsters in order to sour the public on the war. Remember the reports of unprovoked attacks on Mosques by US military? My question is, how many people are stopping to question the motivations for this press?

If the investigation proves malfeasants, than prosecute them. Then the accused will have gotten a trial and would be at least assumed innocent until proof is given. The least they press could do is use the work accused in the article.

Want to be disturbed by other online reports? Take a look at the Socialist Worker Online.