thedrifter
08-22-06, 01:39 PM
August 28, 2006
Marines feel shadow of civilian deaths
HADITHAH, Iraq — A young Marine wonders if his superiors will support him if he shoots at perceived threats. An officer worries that civilians look at his Marines with more suspicion. The proud colonel acknowledges that his Corps has lost stature in the public’s eyes.
Allegations that Marines deliberately killed 24 civilians — including unarmed women and children — last November in this rebellious city have prompted reactions ranging from shame and anger to disbelief within the Corps.
In this proud service, some say they’re being prematurely judged. Others grasp for plausible explanations behind the alleged slaughter.
A Pentagon official said in August that evidence collected in the Nov. 19, 2005, killings supports accusations that Marines deliberately shot the civilians.
The commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force must endorse the investigation’s findings before charges are formally pressed.
If the Hadithah allegations are true, it would call into question what Marines consider their strengths: discipline in the ranks and holding the moral high ground in wartime.
Marines are alleged to have covered up the Hadithah killings for weeks. Moreover, the nature of the incident was not discovered internally: The investigation was launched only after Time magazine questioned U.S. commanders about the civilian deaths.
Senior Marine commanders insist the investigation will not damage the Corps irrevocably.
“We’re going to come out of this just fine,” said Lt. Gen. James Amos, outgoing commander of II MEF. “I don’t know what the investigation is going to say. The truth will come out, and the Marine Corps is going to do the right thing.”
But on the front lines of the war, grunts and field commanders say the allegations have further complicated a difficult task. About 20,000 Marines are thinly spread across violent Anbar province, an area with more than a million Sunni Arabs at the forefront of the insurgency.
Cpl. Luis Perez, 22, of Lusby, Md., who is stationed in Ramadi, said the case “kind of makes you want someone higher up to be there to make sure you’re completely in the right” when instinct says to fire.
Perez said insurgents in Ramadi have been increasingly firing from mosques to “lure us into doing something that we don’t want to do.”
Field commanders have echoed an array of challenges stemming from the Hadithah case. Arab television networks have regularly covered the investigation’s progress.
“The Iraqi people are going to perceive that everybody does business this way, and that’s not the case,” said Capt. Andrew Del Gaudio, 30, a New Yorker who leads a Marine company in Ramadi. “We inherently have a responsibility to apply our craft with humanity ... and to apply a proportionate amount of force to a threat.”
Many grunts privately complain that outsiders unfamiliar with the pressures of a counterinsurgency war unfairly condemn the accused men. Some expressed anger at what they consider political attacks directed at the Marines — instead of against Washington policy-makers.
“Institutionally, it’s sad because we’ve been prejudged by many. Many who have qualms against the [Bush] administration use this,” said Col. Juan Ayala, a 26-year Corps veteran who helps train the Iraqi army. “You see an institution that you really love taking slaps. ... But if guys are guilty of disobeying the law of armed conflict, they should face justice.”
U.S. commanders were concerned enough by the investigation’s initial findings to order U.S. troops in Iraq to undergo refresher training in “core values,” including how to treat Iraqi civilians.
“The core-values training that we just completed is one of those things that I think we need to do from time to time again just to make sure we understand the complexity of the environment that we are in and how our training fits, how our values fit into a different culture,” said Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, senior commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq.
Other changes have been instituted as a result of the investigation. After a Marine spokesman repeatedly defended the accused Marines — reportedly going as far as to accuse a Time reporter of believing al-Qaida propaganda — official statements now undergo greater scrutiny prior to release.
Some Marines privately speculated that the troops under investigation unleashed their anger on civilians who likely knew who planted the bomb that killed a young lance corporal, triggering the bloodletting. In most parts of Iraq, civilians stay silent after insurgent attacks, either out of fear or sympathy for militants.
“We are not tasked with doing something simple,” said Del Gaudio — just as a suicide car bomb exploded down the street from his base, shattering windows and wounding four troops. A few minutes later Del Gaudio continued.
“I’ve told my Marines since Day 1: I will always stand beside any decision they make. ... Anytime they shoot someone, I want them to have a clear conscience,” he said. “It is too dangerous to foster that type of [second-guessing] environment. It’s inherently a relationship of trust with me and my Marines. I trust that we have trained them the right way.”
Since 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines — members of which are accused of the Hadithah killings — was on its third tour in Iraq in three years, some have blamed repeated deployments for sparking the killings. Seven Marines and a sailor from another battalion — 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines — which was also on its third Iraq tour, are accused of unjustifiably killing a man in the western town of Hamdaniya. Both battalions took part in storming Fallujah in November 2004.
But some have pointed out that the senior officer accused of overseeing the alleged killings in Hadithah was only in the third month of his first tour in Iraq. Some commanders contend that multiple deployments were likely not a factor in such incidents.
“These guys enlisted after 9/11. And to a man, I’d say they wanted to go to war,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Looney, who commanded Marines from 3/5 who were charged in the Hamdaniya killing. “They knew they were going to war.”
— The Associated Press
Ellie
Marines feel shadow of civilian deaths
HADITHAH, Iraq — A young Marine wonders if his superiors will support him if he shoots at perceived threats. An officer worries that civilians look at his Marines with more suspicion. The proud colonel acknowledges that his Corps has lost stature in the public’s eyes.
Allegations that Marines deliberately killed 24 civilians — including unarmed women and children — last November in this rebellious city have prompted reactions ranging from shame and anger to disbelief within the Corps.
In this proud service, some say they’re being prematurely judged. Others grasp for plausible explanations behind the alleged slaughter.
A Pentagon official said in August that evidence collected in the Nov. 19, 2005, killings supports accusations that Marines deliberately shot the civilians.
The commander of I Marine Expeditionary Force must endorse the investigation’s findings before charges are formally pressed.
If the Hadithah allegations are true, it would call into question what Marines consider their strengths: discipline in the ranks and holding the moral high ground in wartime.
Marines are alleged to have covered up the Hadithah killings for weeks. Moreover, the nature of the incident was not discovered internally: The investigation was launched only after Time magazine questioned U.S. commanders about the civilian deaths.
Senior Marine commanders insist the investigation will not damage the Corps irrevocably.
“We’re going to come out of this just fine,” said Lt. Gen. James Amos, outgoing commander of II MEF. “I don’t know what the investigation is going to say. The truth will come out, and the Marine Corps is going to do the right thing.”
But on the front lines of the war, grunts and field commanders say the allegations have further complicated a difficult task. About 20,000 Marines are thinly spread across violent Anbar province, an area with more than a million Sunni Arabs at the forefront of the insurgency.
Cpl. Luis Perez, 22, of Lusby, Md., who is stationed in Ramadi, said the case “kind of makes you want someone higher up to be there to make sure you’re completely in the right” when instinct says to fire.
Perez said insurgents in Ramadi have been increasingly firing from mosques to “lure us into doing something that we don’t want to do.”
Field commanders have echoed an array of challenges stemming from the Hadithah case. Arab television networks have regularly covered the investigation’s progress.
“The Iraqi people are going to perceive that everybody does business this way, and that’s not the case,” said Capt. Andrew Del Gaudio, 30, a New Yorker who leads a Marine company in Ramadi. “We inherently have a responsibility to apply our craft with humanity ... and to apply a proportionate amount of force to a threat.”
Many grunts privately complain that outsiders unfamiliar with the pressures of a counterinsurgency war unfairly condemn the accused men. Some expressed anger at what they consider political attacks directed at the Marines — instead of against Washington policy-makers.
“Institutionally, it’s sad because we’ve been prejudged by many. Many who have qualms against the [Bush] administration use this,” said Col. Juan Ayala, a 26-year Corps veteran who helps train the Iraqi army. “You see an institution that you really love taking slaps. ... But if guys are guilty of disobeying the law of armed conflict, they should face justice.”
U.S. commanders were concerned enough by the investigation’s initial findings to order U.S. troops in Iraq to undergo refresher training in “core values,” including how to treat Iraqi civilians.
“The core-values training that we just completed is one of those things that I think we need to do from time to time again just to make sure we understand the complexity of the environment that we are in and how our training fits, how our values fit into a different culture,” said Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, senior commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq.
Other changes have been instituted as a result of the investigation. After a Marine spokesman repeatedly defended the accused Marines — reportedly going as far as to accuse a Time reporter of believing al-Qaida propaganda — official statements now undergo greater scrutiny prior to release.
Some Marines privately speculated that the troops under investigation unleashed their anger on civilians who likely knew who planted the bomb that killed a young lance corporal, triggering the bloodletting. In most parts of Iraq, civilians stay silent after insurgent attacks, either out of fear or sympathy for militants.
“We are not tasked with doing something simple,” said Del Gaudio — just as a suicide car bomb exploded down the street from his base, shattering windows and wounding four troops. A few minutes later Del Gaudio continued.
“I’ve told my Marines since Day 1: I will always stand beside any decision they make. ... Anytime they shoot someone, I want them to have a clear conscience,” he said. “It is too dangerous to foster that type of [second-guessing] environment. It’s inherently a relationship of trust with me and my Marines. I trust that we have trained them the right way.”
Since 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines — members of which are accused of the Hadithah killings — was on its third tour in Iraq in three years, some have blamed repeated deployments for sparking the killings. Seven Marines and a sailor from another battalion — 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines — which was also on its third Iraq tour, are accused of unjustifiably killing a man in the western town of Hamdaniya. Both battalions took part in storming Fallujah in November 2004.
But some have pointed out that the senior officer accused of overseeing the alleged killings in Hadithah was only in the third month of his first tour in Iraq. Some commanders contend that multiple deployments were likely not a factor in such incidents.
“These guys enlisted after 9/11. And to a man, I’d say they wanted to go to war,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Looney, who commanded Marines from 3/5 who were charged in the Hamdaniya killing. “They knew they were going to war.”
— The Associated Press
Ellie