In Haditha, echoes of past military atrocities

updated 2:50 p.m. ET June 1, 2006

WASHINGTON - Some words are synonymous with military disgrace. Abu Ghraib. My Lai. And now, perhaps Haditha — the Iraqi town where two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians allegedly were murdered by U.S. Marines.

Still under investigation, the episode could firm rising American opposition to the U.S. presence in Iraq, just as the 1968 My Lai killings helped turn the tide of public opinion against the Vietnam War.

President Bush promised Wednesday that, if an investigation turns up evidence of wrongdoing, “those who violated the law, if they did, will be punished.”

The case just added to the administration’s many Iraq woes. Just when things seem like they can’t get any worse, they do.

“When something like Haditha happens, it gives the impression that Americans can’t be trusted to provide security, which is the most important thing to Iraqis on a day-to-day level,” said Anthony Cordesman, an Iraq expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It tends to confirm all of the worst interpretations of the United States, and not simply in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan and in the region,” Cordesman said.

Reaction at home, abroad
The disclosure of the allegedly unprovoked killings of civilians in the Iraqi town comes with the war looming large in this year’s congressional elections, and with the administration still struggling to explain the American treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Haditha is an insurgent stronghold 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. The alleged massacre last November has drawn expressions of outrage from anti-war critics in the United States and from officials of the new Iraqi government.

“Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood,” said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., even though the case is still under investigation and no charges have been filed.

Military investigators have evidence that points toward unprovoked murders by Marines, a senior defense official said last week.

Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, commander of Multinational Corps Iraq, Thursday ordered American commanders to conduct core values training with all troops on moral and ethical standards on the battlefield.

“This is just a reminder — for troops in Iraq or throughout our military — that there are high standards expected of them and that there are strong rules of engagement,” Bush said Thursday.

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