In Iraq few calls heard for justice after 24 killed
Knight Ridder
Disillusionment, fear behind silence
As a U.S. politician charged Sunday that U.S. Marines had killed 24 Iraqi civilians last fall and news reports seemed to support the claim, the story has not generated outrage in Iraq.
It didn't come up when Iraq's parliament met Sunday. The talking heads on Iraqi television issued no new calls for a U.S. troop withdrawal, as often happens after U.S. forces are seen to have made big mistakes. Local papers ran no stories about possible murder charges against some Marines allegedly involved in the Nov. 19 shootings.
Killings -- whether at the hands of U.S. soldiers, criminal gangs or militias -- have become everyday occurrences in Iraq, some residents explained. And the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in which low-ranking U.S. troops suffered consequences, convinced many Iraqis that when it comes to U.S. military justice, top leaders can get away with crimes they orchestrate.
"I will not excuse murder, and that's what's happened," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said on ABC's "This Week" about the civilian killings, which occurred in the often-violent Sunni-dominated town of Haditha.
Murthada Abdel Rashid, 29, a Baghdad sandwich vendor, was beyond caring, however.
"I am not surprised by what happened in Haditha because Americans are terrorists and killers. And this is the way of life now," he said. "I don't care if they punish the American soldiers because they cannot bring back the lives of the dead."
Others called the parliament's silence a sign of the new Shi'ite-dominated government's indifference to civilian deaths, especially when the victims are Sunnis.
"The Iraqi politicians have failed in every way. The Shi'ite politicians have shown that they work for their own interests and their parties. The same thing is true for the Sunnis and Kurds. They do not think about the country," said Ali al Rubaie, a fabric storeowner in Baghdad. Read more
Disillusionment, fear behind silence
As a U.S. politician charged Sunday that U.S. Marines had killed 24 Iraqi civilians last fall and news reports seemed to support the claim, the story has not generated outrage in Iraq.
It didn't come up when Iraq's parliament met Sunday. The talking heads on Iraqi television issued no new calls for a U.S. troop withdrawal, as often happens after U.S. forces are seen to have made big mistakes. Local papers ran no stories about possible murder charges against some Marines allegedly involved in the Nov. 19 shootings.
Killings -- whether at the hands of U.S. soldiers, criminal gangs or militias -- have become everyday occurrences in Iraq, some residents explained. And the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, in which low-ranking U.S. troops suffered consequences, convinced many Iraqis that when it comes to U.S. military justice, top leaders can get away with crimes they orchestrate.
"I will not excuse murder, and that's what's happened," Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said on ABC's "This Week" about the civilian killings, which occurred in the often-violent Sunni-dominated town of Haditha.
Murthada Abdel Rashid, 29, a Baghdad sandwich vendor, was beyond caring, however.
"I am not surprised by what happened in Haditha because Americans are terrorists and killers. And this is the way of life now," he said. "I don't care if they punish the American soldiers because they cannot bring back the lives of the dead."
Others called the parliament's silence a sign of the new Shi'ite-dominated government's indifference to civilian deaths, especially when the victims are Sunnis.
"The Iraqi politicians have failed in every way. The Shi'ite politicians have shown that they work for their own interests and their parties. The same thing is true for the Sunnis and Kurds. They do not think about the country," said Ali al Rubaie, a fabric storeowner in Baghdad. Read more
posted by exoplanet at 5:24 PM
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