thedrifter
08-28-07, 03:42 PM
Question rules of engagement, too
By: DAVID WAGNER - Commentary:
Thanks to Mark Walker for a reasonably coherent recap of the Haditha story ( "Haditha squad leader faces hearing this week," Aug. 26). I'm glad that you recalled Rep. John Murtha's ill-advised commentary.
In the story of the Haditha killings, the initial shooting of five unarmed and dismounted men almost forces a prejudgment on everything else that followed. It makes it very easy to believe that our patrol succumbed to a blood rage in its subsequent actions, killing all occupants in the houses they cleared. I don't know what really happened.
Since we are judging Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and his men in a public forum, there is a feature of insurgent tactics that Haditha reportage ought to consider mentioning. From the first urban fighting in 2003, enemy fighters have been observed moving unarmed between fighting positions. It is widely believed that they take advantage of U.S. rules of engagement, using pre-positioned weapons or fighting with weapons of opportunity that can be found in many Iraqi homes. That does not excuse the execution of prisoners, but it certainly could change the way Wuterich and Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz would look at a carload of military-aged men.
If Sgt. Wuterich's patrol is to be questioned, how about their rules of engagement, and their multiyear mission to service "traffic control points" in the midst of an armed, angry population on a primary infiltration route? How do hunters behave when they are hunted? For me, the best Marines are trained to be dangerous men, and the worst Marines are still my troops. This ugly story of collateral killing is ours -- ours to demand an accounting, to seek justice, to offer restitution and maybe even mercy.
The bravery and anguish of Iraqis helping each other in the wake of terror bombings is quite obvious in the news footage. There are also accounts that the intermittent enemy fighters gather to the sound of fighting, like bees when their hive has been disturbed. America doesn't want to know that today's heroic victims are tomorrow's angry fighters, and vice versa. Even when our own casualties provide us an example of the urge for payback.
Haditha in 2005 was a very unsettled place, with Sunni factions fighting each other, al-Qaida infiltrators, U.S. troops and the Shiite/Kurd army. An Iraqi cab driver should have been looking ahead for any signs of fighting, just to stay alive. Our distinctive HMVs with their roof-mounted heavy machine guns would raise all kinds of flags, even without the smoke and dust from a fresh IED explosion.
Neither enemy fighters "advancing to contact" nor "hapless students on the way to college classes" makes much sense to me. Do Iraqis hold college classes on Saturday? Was there any evidence that the first four men killed were actually students at a real college?
The least sensible explanation is that these Iraqi men were part of the IED squad, and decided to drive unarmed to the bomb site, where angry, heavily armed U.S. soldiers would be expecting an attack. But if anyone promised our Marines that this war made sense, they misspoke.
-- David Wagner lives in Leucadia.
Ellie
By: DAVID WAGNER - Commentary:
Thanks to Mark Walker for a reasonably coherent recap of the Haditha story ( "Haditha squad leader faces hearing this week," Aug. 26). I'm glad that you recalled Rep. John Murtha's ill-advised commentary.
In the story of the Haditha killings, the initial shooting of five unarmed and dismounted men almost forces a prejudgment on everything else that followed. It makes it very easy to believe that our patrol succumbed to a blood rage in its subsequent actions, killing all occupants in the houses they cleared. I don't know what really happened.
Since we are judging Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich and his men in a public forum, there is a feature of insurgent tactics that Haditha reportage ought to consider mentioning. From the first urban fighting in 2003, enemy fighters have been observed moving unarmed between fighting positions. It is widely believed that they take advantage of U.S. rules of engagement, using pre-positioned weapons or fighting with weapons of opportunity that can be found in many Iraqi homes. That does not excuse the execution of prisoners, but it certainly could change the way Wuterich and Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz would look at a carload of military-aged men.
If Sgt. Wuterich's patrol is to be questioned, how about their rules of engagement, and their multiyear mission to service "traffic control points" in the midst of an armed, angry population on a primary infiltration route? How do hunters behave when they are hunted? For me, the best Marines are trained to be dangerous men, and the worst Marines are still my troops. This ugly story of collateral killing is ours -- ours to demand an accounting, to seek justice, to offer restitution and maybe even mercy.
The bravery and anguish of Iraqis helping each other in the wake of terror bombings is quite obvious in the news footage. There are also accounts that the intermittent enemy fighters gather to the sound of fighting, like bees when their hive has been disturbed. America doesn't want to know that today's heroic victims are tomorrow's angry fighters, and vice versa. Even when our own casualties provide us an example of the urge for payback.
Haditha in 2005 was a very unsettled place, with Sunni factions fighting each other, al-Qaida infiltrators, U.S. troops and the Shiite/Kurd army. An Iraqi cab driver should have been looking ahead for any signs of fighting, just to stay alive. Our distinctive HMVs with their roof-mounted heavy machine guns would raise all kinds of flags, even without the smoke and dust from a fresh IED explosion.
Neither enemy fighters "advancing to contact" nor "hapless students on the way to college classes" makes much sense to me. Do Iraqis hold college classes on Saturday? Was there any evidence that the first four men killed were actually students at a real college?
The least sensible explanation is that these Iraqi men were part of the IED squad, and decided to drive unarmed to the bomb site, where angry, heavily armed U.S. soldiers would be expecting an attack. But if anyone promised our Marines that this war made sense, they misspoke.
-- David Wagner lives in Leucadia.
Ellie