Haditha - Marines Possibly 'Tweaked out on Speed'

A shocking story in The Guardian yesterday regarding the massacre in Haditha. According to the report, the marine unit involved had suffered a 'total breakdown' in discipline and had drug related problems. A wife of one of the units staff sergeants claimed that:

"There were problems in Kilo company with drugs, alcohol, hazing [violent initiation games], you name it. I think it's more than possible that these guys were totally tweaked out on speed or something when they shot those civilians in Haditha."

Even a reporter from the Daily Telegraph (one of the more right-wing newspapers) said that their headquarters at Haditha Dam was a 'feral place' where discipline was 'approaching breakdown'. When even some sections of the right-wing press are criticising the army, you know there must be serious problems. Of course, there are still some sections of the media that want to bury their heads in the sand over the massacre. They will always find a reason to either justify it, or to question any findings that the criminal investigation will find.

The logic behind their refusal to acknowledge the massacre is baffling. It seems to work on the basis of 'they commit worse atrocities than us'. They forget that as we are there to promote 'freedom and democracy' we have to be whiter than white. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The atrocities will continue on both sides until the 'coalition forces' (a ludicrous term if ever I saw one) leave Iraq. Until that day the bloodshed will continue on both sides.