Haditha Slaughter - One Of Many

Comment by Larry Ross, June 1, 2006

Dahr Jamail shows that the U.S. Marines slaughter in Haditha is part of the systematic U.S. direct and indirect slaughter of up to 250,000 civilian men, women and children all over Iraq. As with the tortures at Abu Ghraib, there will be a few low-ranking soldiers convicted and people will be conditioned to think the culprits have been punished.

But the architects of this war, and many similar but unreported Hadithas, and wars to follow, will escape scot-free. Bush & Co by their barbaric tortures and slaughter are creating a seed-bed and training ground for terrorism where none existed before. All 'Coalition of the Willing' allies, including Tony Blair and John Howard, are tarred with this brush. The effects and consequences of their foul deeds will seep into their own societies. Some may like to pretend it is not happening, but the cost of electing these evil, deceitful regimes to govern, and represent our 'democracies-in-action' may be far greater than people can now imagine.

 

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Countless My Lai Massacres in Iraq

By Dahr Jamail, May 30, 2006

The media feeding frenzy around what has been referred to as "Iraq's My Lai" has become frenetic. Focus on US Marines slaughtering at least 20 civilians in Haditha last November is reminiscent of the media spasm around the "scandal" of Abu Ghraib during April and May 2004.

Yet just like Abu Ghraib, while the media spotlight shines squarely on the Haditha massacre, countless atrocities continue daily, conveniently out of the awareness of the general public. Torture did not stop simply because the media finally decided, albeit in horribly belated fashion, to cover the story, and the daily slaughter of Iraqi civilians by US forces and US-backed Iraqi "security" forces had not stopped either.

Earlier this month, I received a news release from Iraq, which read, "On Saturday, May 13th, 2006, at 10:00 p.m., US Forces accompanied by the Iraqi National Guard attacked the houses of Iraqi people in the Al-Latifya district south of Baghdad by an intensive helicopter shelling. This led the families to flee to the Al-Mazar and water canals to protect themselves from the fierce shelling. Then seven helicopters landed to pursue the families who fled … and killed them.   The number of victims amounted to more than 25 martyrs. US forces detained another six persons including two women named Israa Ahmed Hasan and Widad Ahmed Hasan, and a child named Huda Hitham Mohammed Hasan, whose father was killed during the shelling."

 

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