Two marines to face Haditha trial

[Drone_pilot]

Two US marines, including a battalion commander, are to face a court
martial in connection with the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in 2005.

Lt Col Jeffrey Chessani is charged with dereliction of duty and failing to
report and investigate the deaths.

L/Cpl Stephen Tatum is accused of involuntary manslaughter, reckless
endangerment and aggravated assault.

BBC Read More (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7053881.stm)

[03Fox2/1]

I believe there is far too much politically motivated criticism of conduct in combat by American troops in the Iraq theater. I do not condone war crimes, nor do I encourage behavior that is beyond the scope of what is deemed acceptable standards of warfare by American troops. But our rules of engagement are complicated and these same rules that Americans must abide by, are well known by our enemies, enemies who have no such rules or restrictions and an enemy that has committed many war crimes against not only American and allied troops, but more often than not, against Iraqi civilians. I have no faith in the Iraqi human rights organization that started this investigation and I suspect that the testimony by civilians against the American Marines in Haditha, is less than truthful. There is no simple answer and there is no simple solution to fighting a war such as this one in Iraq. But I believe that what happened in Haditha has more to do with putting combat Marines with specific limits on their response to a perceived deadly threat in a murky combat situation where their training and tactics dictate a response that once started, can and will lead to many deaths, sometimes, regretably, this includes innocent civilians. It is also apparent that our enemies are aware of this potential deadly mix and have successfully used this very tactic to their advantage on many occasions. Did we not learn from our enemies in VietNam that sometimes they can win politically what they lose on the battlefield. Victory in Iraq, for any and all of our collective enemies, is getting America to withdraw and if painting us with the brush of being out of control war criminals helps, so be it.
For the record, I believe America should withdraw troops from Iraq and monitor their future direction and performance from afar.
Semper Fi

More balanced point-counter-point info to this original post:

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/10/20/news/top_stories/10_62_3510_19_07.txt