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10 June 2006

Another Apocalypse Now - In Iraq ...



Some soldiers serve their country.

Sadly, certain scumbags serve only to shame it.

Some people, such as This Old Brit and Richard, never shy away from standing up to be counted. Some others seek to slink off into the shadows, and some do so on a serial basis.

To which group belongs a certain NCO, Sgt Frank Wuterich of Kilo Company, Third Battalion, First [US] Marines along with several others from the same ' band of brothers' -- ranking both above and below him -- remains as yet to be seen.

Remember what it says in This Old Brit's blog profile -- Richard Reports. You decide.

But to help more plainly put you in the picture, here's a bit more about the man/men we've mentioned -- snipped from Scotland's award winning independent newspaper, The Sunday Herald.


So far, three marine officers, including the commander of Kilo Company and the commander of the third battalion, have been relieved of duty.

The investigation is centred on the NCO who was leading Kilo Company on the day, and was allegedly at the scene of nearly every killing, and a number of other soldiers who are said to have taken part directly in the killings.

Sources close to the investigation have named the ranking marine as 25-year-old Sgt Frank Wuterich. Up to nine other men witnessed the killings but did nothing.
Here's a little longer extract from the same sickening story.


CIVILIANS who spent time at the Haditha Dam base of the Third Battalion of the First Marines describe the place as something out of Apocalypse Now or Lord Of The Flies.

It was 'feral' one said. Soldiers didn't wash. They had abandoned regulation billets and had built make-shift, primitive huts bearing skull-and-crossbone signs. The place stank.

One American civilian engineer attached to the camp, with the task of keeping the huge hydro-electric dam nearby operating, said he was terrified of the soldiers he had to live alongside.

Kilo Company was part of the Third Battalion. At 7.15am on November 19 last year, as a column of Kilo Company Humvees drove down the Hay al-Sinnai Road in Haditha, a bomb exploded under the last vehicle 'the tail-end charlie' killing the driver, 20-year-old Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas.

What happened next will go down in US military history as the worst deliberate atrocity carried out against unarmed civilians by American forces since the notorious massacre at My Lai in Vietnam when GIs killed around 500 people, mainly women, children and the elderly.

Minutes after Terrazas died, the remaining 13-strong unit of marines went on a bloody rampage, wiping out whole families, killing women, children and an elderly man in a wheelchair, and hurling grenades into homes. In all, 24 Iraqi civilians were murdered by American troops.

The killings are already having a corrosive effect on US society, war-weary from scandals such as the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib and the ever-mounting death toll of American troops. US government sources say some of the marines involved will be put on trial, and could face the death penalty for their crimes.

The men of Kilo Company have been involved in some of the worst horrors of the Iraq war, including the assault on Fallujah which involved close-up killing and hand-to-hand fighting. Many of the marines in Kilo Company were on their second tour of duty in Iraq at the time of the massacre in Haditha.

As soon as the shooting stopped, the marines started to lie and cover up the truth about the Haditha killings.

The faked-up version of events went something like this: as a taxi drove up Hay al-Sinnai Road towards the Humvee column, the marines waved to it to stop. When the Humvees and the taxi came to a halt, a bomb detonated, indicating, the marines claimed, that the taxi was either meant to lure the Humvees over the bomb or that someone in the taxi detonated the bomb. The marines claimed they immediately came under fire from nearby houses once the bomb exploded.

The four passengers in the taxi and the driver fled, the marines claimed, and were all shot dead. Soldiers then returned fire on the positions shooting at them, killing eight insurgents. Fifteen civilians, they said, also died in the explosion which killed the Humvee driver Terrazas.

Investigations by the military, accounts by survivors and reports by human rights organisations and medics have proved that this version of events contains barely a grain of truth.

Shocking, eh?

Here's some more of the same.


When it became clear that the civilians had been shot by US soldiers, the marines switched to saying that the deaths were the fault of insurgents who placed non-combatants in the line of fire as the marines responded to defend themselves.

However, that claim also fell apart when other senior US commanders in Baghdad saw the tape and a criminal investigation was opened.

Military police travelled to Haditha, examined the murder scenes, spoke to survivors and interviewed marines.

The marine's story quickly collapsed and members of Kilo Company started to implicate each other.
Well, surprise, surprise. Who would have thought it, eh? Accusing their close comrades; stabbing their big brave brothers in the back; fibbing and fingering their fellow troopers.


They certainly sound like some special sort of fine upstanding soldiers, wouldn't you say?

Here's your last 'taster' from this terrible tale.

A doctor at the hospital said there were no signs of shrapnel wounds from explosives on the bodies, instead the bullet wounds were very apparent.

Most of the victims were shot in the chest and head from close range. Death certificates for all the murdered Iraqi civilians also showed they were all shot - many in the head and chest.

One marine who had to help clear up the aftermath of the murders and remove the bodies, Lance Corporal Roel Ryan Briones, said he was traumatised by what he'd seen. They ranged from little babies to adult males and females, he said. I'll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood. This left something in my head and heart.

Briones's mother added: He had to carry a little girl's body. Her head was blown off and her brain splattered on his boots.
Read the rest of the full revolting report right here.

10 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

When I read about that, Richard, I thought "the end is nigh". Apocolyse Now, indeed.

Not many people realise that the US withdrew from Vietnam not because of the protests back home but because of the repeated mutinys by the troops in the field. Troops near the border of Nth Vietnam simply refused to go out on patrol not to mention all the fragging that went on. I have read reports that officers went along with criminal behaviour towards the Vietnamese simply to curry favour with the troops and not invite open mutiny. Not that the troops were doing anything that the CIA and Army were doing through their murderous Phoenix Program. It became commonplace for troops to refuse an order and draw their rifles on officers.

It is inevitable that the troops at the sharp end will model their attitude on that of their leaders at the top. It happens in every organisation.

When Bush, Rumsfeld and the generals show total disregard and respect for EVERYONE, then why should anyone be surprised when the privates throught to sergeants do the same?

When the Pentagon shows total disrespect and regard for the troops, why show the troops show respect and regard for the army leadership?

When the Pentagon and their political masters (assuming the order isn't the other way round) embrace and wallow in the philosophy of death and destruction, why be surprised when the troops on the ground do the same?

All that's missing is the belts made from strings of ears. Welcome to Hell!

I think there is one hell of a shit fight coming - unless the US pulls out RIGHT NOW if not sooner

2:53 am  
Blogger Gert said...

I will be linking to this ASAP.

Well found, that man (Richard}...

3:55 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank goodness for Scotland's Sunday Herald.

The truth of this will never be told in American newspapers. Just like the truth about the insurrections in the ranks in 'Nam 30-some years ago has never been told.

We all know people who still suffer from the emotional trauma of serving in Vietnam.

The attitudes taught in our military are horrible even when there is no war going on. I know this from the experience of my son. He was not serving in wartime. It takes time and effort to get back to normal. They are just kids.

Absolutely I agree the responsibility goes all the way to the very top.

6:48 am  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I dread to think about what kind of things we never get to hear about.

2:56 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"What happened next will go down in US military history as the worst deliberate atrocity carried out against unarmed civilians by American forces since the notorious massacre at My Lai."

Actually, US soldiers carried out several massacres on the same scale of Haditha after My Lai. At Thanh Phong, for example, Senator and former presidential candidate Bob Kerry led a small unit that slaughtered more than a dozen civilians.

At Son Thang, 16 were murdered. Oliver North has seen fit to throw in his two cents on Haditha, confident that no-one will remember his court testimony on behalf of the killers of Son Thang.

It's bad enough that the American media hides facts and thoroughly buys in to the notion that American soldiers, unlike the soldiers of every other nation in history, almost never engage in war crimes. It's distressing to see the Sunday Herald buying into this notion, even to a limited extent.

3:16 pm  
Blogger Gert said...

Gordo:

People like Ollie North are very good at turning arguments on their heads, believing that thereby they're making a point.

It's the old "argument": "dissenters just love to dissent". It's tantamount to saying "Liberals just love these little "glitches" because it gives them ammo in their fight with Bush et al".

North's is an immoral viewpoint. But I bet you there's no shortage of American service men and women, of whatever rank, who are also appalled at these reports... There's hope yet.

5:18 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gert beat me to it.

Here's just one example of one American soldier who was, and remains, appalled -- to put it mildly.

5:34 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's what I was talking about:

One marine who had to help clear up the aftermath of the murders and remove the bodies, Lance Corporal Roel Ryan Briones, said he was traumatised by what he'd seen. They ranged from little babies to adult males and females, he said. I'll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood. This left something in my head and heart.

Briones's mother added: He had to carry a little girl's body. Her head was blown off and her brain splattered on his boots.

5:43 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thugs are thugs. Where ever in the world they may be. In or out of uniform.

By the same token, they should all pay exactly the same price for their crimes.

9:57 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

Already the pundits are making excuses ~ even the so called liberal ones ~ msm AND online.

Those dear, misunderstood all American boys have been driven mad, and it's not their fault.

My answer? Then get them ALL back fucking home ~ sane or insane ~ get them ALL back fucking home.

1:14 am  

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