Broken Record

Her life is devastated but it's nobody's fault.

The Santa Maria Times [http://tinyurl.com/n543j] indicates today that Pentagon investigations into the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians in Haditha are focused on about a dozen enlisted Marines and do not target their commanding officers, the lawyer for one of the officers said Tuesday.

«The investigations of up to two dozen killings and whether Marines covered them up are focused on the troops who were in a four-vehicle convoy hit by a roadside bomb last Nov. 19 in the western Iraqi city of Haditha, attorney Paul Hackett said.

The highest-ranking Marine targeted by the investigations is a staff sergeant who led the convoy, said Hackett, a Marine reservist and Iraqi war veteran who last year narrowly lost a special election for a U.S. House seat in Ohio. The troops are from Kilo Company, part of Camp Pendleton's 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. Hackett represents Capt. James Kimber, one of three battalion officers relieved of command last month.

"My purpose is to separate his name from the alleged war crimes that took place," Hackett told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "He's not under investigation for anything related to what has played out in press."...[snip]

The Pentagon has named two others who were relieved of command: Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, the battalion's commander, and Capt. Lucas McConnell, who commanded Kilo Company. Hackett does not represent either man but said neither was present for the shootings and he believes neither man is a target of the investigations.»

Once again, surprise, surprise, it was just the work of some bad apples... So are you ready for my broken record performance? Here I go:

• Nobody important or in power will ever be held responsible. Ever.
  

• Some, but not all, of the soldiers who did shoot the Iraqi civilians, will receive some official punishment, but the charges will be dropped or the terms will be shortened, or even cancelled, once the whole thing dies down and is no longer in the public mind. U.S. Army Lt. William Calley was convicted in 1971 of premeditated murder in ordering the My Lai shootings and initially sentenced to life in prison; two days later, however, President Nixon ordered him released from prison, pending appeal of his sentence. Calley served 3½ years of house arrest in his quarters at Fort Benning, Georgia and was then ordered freed by Federal Judge J. Robert Elliot (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Lai_Massacre).

• American soldiers will forever be considered brave and noble heroes, every single one of them, for no other reason than being American soldiers. In «real life», some of them could be sadistic murderers, or cowards, thieves, rapists, racist assholes, etc. but as long as they are in the army, you are forced by law to praise them and call them «our magnificent soldiers», «the brave men and women bla bla». Simply by enrolling in the army, a person suddenly acquires a mystical halo. Funny, cause I personnaly knew a few soldiers during the Vietnam war, they were just as mean and stupid as when they were civilians. A bit like in Oriental culture, where all mothers are saints. A woman can be a retarded cow, but as soon as a baby pops out of her loins, she is instantly considered wise and respectable.

• No matter how horrific the war crimes, the same excuse of «overstressed snapping soldiers» will be proferred and accepted. «Yes, it's true that Johnny sliced up that baby, but he was stressed, his best friend just got shot at and he snapped!» So that's okay, I guess... although I wonder how «stressed» the baby's mother must be...
  

• Another excuse is: it's not the soldier's fault, we should blame the generals instead, or Rumsfeld or Bush. Yes, we should, but who pulled the trigger? It's the same bullshit as «guns don't kill people, people kill people». The killers become victims to be pitied and empathized with. The bucket is passed on to some vague entities and somebody's husband, mother, uncle, grandmother, son are dead but nobody's responsible. Do you understand that? There's a war and soldiers are sent in to kill people, but it's not their fault. It must be the collateral damage's fault then.
  

• Which brings me to the common basic principle that explains everything: Non-white people in underdeveloped countries can be maimed, killed, emprisoned, tortured, massacred with impunity. Their killers/torturers could be soldiers from foreign countries or soldiers or special police forces from their own country. Let me repeat this undeniable truth: NON-WHITE PEOPLE IN UNDERDEVELOPED COUNTRIES CAN BE PERSECUTED WITH IMPUNITY . Their life has no intrinsic value, neither in the eyes of foreign troops (Iraqi civilians) nor in the eyes of their own government (refugees in Dafur).