Chicago Tribune Editorial - Investigating Haditha

Chicago Tribune Editorial - Investigating Haditha
Published May 31, 2006
Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune


The story has been building, ever uglier, since Time magazine reporters first laid out the parameters in March: U.S. Marines, outraged that a bomb had killed a lance corporal driving a Humvee, allegedly went on a killing spree last Nov. 19 in Haditha, an insurgent stronghold 150 miles northwest of Baghdad. By Time's recounting, vengeful members of Kilo Company, 3rd
Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment may have slain as many as 24 Iraqi civilians. Iraqis who described themselves
as survivors of the incident told The New York Times the victims included several children and a 77-year-old man in a wheelchair.

Did that happen? Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday on CBS that "we'll get to the bottom of the investigation and take the appropriate action." That means determining what occurred Nov. 19 and whether someone in the chain of command tried to cover up a massacre. If subsequent charges include murder, they raise the possibility of death penalties for those convicted.

Waiting for the Pentagon to nail down the facts of this matter is more difficult than passing premature judgment. But fairness demands the former over the latter. Sunday's Washington Post carried a cautionary commentary by a former platoon commander named Ilario Pantano: "A year ago I was charged with two counts of premeditated murder and with other war crimes related to my service in Iraq. My wife and mother sat in a Camp Lejeune courtroom for five days while prosecutors painted me as a monster; then autopsy evidence blew their case out of the water, and the Marine Corps dropped all charges against me. ... Let the courts decide if these [Haditha] Marines are guilty. They haven't even been charged with a crime yet, so it is premature to presume their guilt--unless that presumption is tied to a political motive."

Pantano is upset specifically that a prominent war critic, U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) diagnosed Haditha last week as if he had all the facts: "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
Pantano's advice that Americans not join Murtha's rush to judgment is sound.

Investigators may conclude that Haditha was as much an atrocity as the My Lai massacre of March 16, 1968, when U.S. soldiers killed 175 to 400 unarmed Vietnamese villagers. It's also worth noting, though, that we recall My Lai in part because incidents of unprovoked murder by U.S. troops in combat zones are quite rare.

Pace said Monday that if U.S. troops did kill innocents at Haditha, they "have not performed their duty the way that 99.9 percent of their fellow Marines have."

Pace's responsibility is to determine whether the evidence supports the accusations now aimed at his fellow Marines. It is critical, whatever the fallout for U.S. interests, that the U.S. military give a full accounting. If the horrific accusations prove true, Americans will want to see those responsible held to account. But first, let's find out what happened at Haditha.