haditha: the latest
Allahpundit has the latest, including links to an interview with a Marine who was sitting in the vehicle next to the one who was killed which apparently sparked the incident. It’s long, and I haven’t watched it yet, but it appears from what I’ve seen that this Marine was grievously wounded by the explosive and thus can’t provide too many details about what happened.
The Almighty One also has a link to an interview with the dead Marine’s father, who has spoken with other members of the unit.
John Cole has a link to an interview with a journalist that travelled with the unit whose actions are in question, which leads him to make the following conjecture: “I really do think Damon is probably painting the most accurate description of events (at least from the evidence I have seen)- that it was, as she wrote, ‘a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.’ This is what I think happened- a small group of frazzled Marines, under a great deal of stress and pressure, lost control when one of their buddies was killed and went on a ‘rampage.’ It does not excuse their behavior, but it does help to explain it.”
The journalist’s (CNN’s Arwa Damon) piece is a good one, describing in grim detail the outlook for the typical Marine in Haditha, a virtual hive of IEDs and insurgents blending with the civilian population. As Cole said, these details help provide an explanation for this alleged behavior, but they are not an excuse for it. We shall see what the investigation brings. I’d be surprised if it differs too much from Cole’s conjecture.
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