You might think the significance of the massacre in Haditha is self evident, but in the event it eludes you, The Nation helpfully explains. Even though Iraq is, they say, a place where civilians are being killed in scores by a variety of people, including us, “there remains a distinctly sickening horror in close-up systematic killing of civilians that’s at odds with the declared US mission in Iraq and is repugnant to our national ideals.”
Arguably our national ideals aren’t so much ideals any more as they are memorabilia to be trotted out on special occasions: “Oh, look, here’s our Rule of Law. You kids won’t believe this, but once upon a time we used it as a measuring stick.” Still, that a progressive magazine should be at pains to notify its readers that murdering civilians isn’t something Americans should in theory incorporate into our collective values system is depressing for a variety of reasons, not least that it’s become yet one more of those things that should go without saying but no longer do.
Equally troubling is the editorial’s implicit assumption that readers need instruction on the humanity of Iraqis.
What matters about Haditha? After all, Iraq is a place where civilians die every day. Many of them die as a result of insurgent car bombs, or at the hands of Sunni or Shiite militias. Many thousands of others died in US air attacks early in the war (as civilians did recently in airstrikes in another US war zone, Kandahar).
Even in this context there remains a distinctly sickening horror in close-up systematic killing of civilians that’s at odds with the declared US mission in Iraq and is repugnant to our national ideals.
I suppose you could regard the reference to context as evidencing a refreshing lack of sentimentality — once the killing starts, dead people are dead regardless the method or motive — or as an implicit recognition that Americans are responsible for all the killings by virtue of having started the war and so creating the circumstances in which civilians are being killed en masse, or both. The second interpretation seems an excessively liberal one, since just about everything we’ve done in Iraq is at odds with the declared US mission there; whichever of the stated goals you choose to invest in, none of them are predicated on destroying the country by degrees.
The first is probably closer to the mark, but lacks any recognition that however much Nation readers are immunized to the slaughter in Iraq and require instruction on the ramifications of Haditha, Iraqis may still care how, why and by whom their friends, neighbors and families are killed with varying degrees of intention or outright murdered.
The slaughter in Haditha is far from the only war crime committed by the US in Iraq; it’s just the worst among several that the US has acknowledged. The November 2005 assault on Falluja, in which many hundreds if not thousands of civilians were killed, and where no Iraqi men and boys of fighting age were permitted to leave the city before the assault began, probably qualifies as a war crime on a much larger scale, and one that was planned and executed by senior US officers, acting with the approval of their civilian supervisors, rather than by a handful of Marines.
Regardless, the Nation editorial provides a handy illustration of where we are as an actual nation, and it’s nowhere we want to be.
Milquetoast Nation and the Haditha Massacre
You might think the significance of the massacre in Haditha is self evident, but in the event it eludes you, The Nation helpfully explains. Even though Iraq is, they say, a place where civilians are being killed in scores by a variety of people, including us, “there remains a distinctly sickening horror in close-up systematic killing of civilians that’s at odds with the declared US mission in Iraq and is repugnant to our national ideals.”
Arguably our national ideals aren’t so much ideals any more as they are memorabilia to be trotted out on special occasions: “Oh, look, here’s our Rule of Law. You kids won’t believe this, but once upon a time we used it as a measuring stick.” Still, that a progressive magazine should be at pains to notify its readers that murdering civilians isn’t something Americans should in theory incorporate into our collective values system is depressing for a variety of reasons, not least that it’s become yet one more of those things that should go without saying but no longer do.
Equally troubling is the editorial’s implicit assumption that readers need instruction on the humanity of Iraqis.
I suppose you could regard the reference to context as evidencing a refreshing lack of sentimentality — once the killing starts, dead people are dead regardless the method or motive — or as an implicit recognition that Americans are responsible for all the killings by virtue of having started the war and so creating the circumstances in which civilians are being killed en masse, or both. The second interpretation seems an excessively liberal one, since just about everything we’ve done in Iraq is at odds with the declared US mission there; whichever of the stated goals you choose to invest in, none of them are predicated on destroying the country by degrees.
The first is probably closer to the mark, but lacks any recognition that however much Nation readers are immunized to the slaughter in Iraq and require instruction on the ramifications of Haditha, Iraqis may still care how, why and by whom their friends, neighbors and families are killed with varying degrees of intention or outright murdered.
The slaughter in Haditha is far from the only war crime committed by the US in Iraq; it’s just the worst among several that the US has acknowledged. The November 2005 assault on Falluja, in which many hundreds if not thousands of civilians were killed, and where no Iraqi men and boys of fighting age were permitted to leave the city before the assault began, probably qualifies as a war crime on a much larger scale, and one that was planned and executed by senior US officers, acting with the approval of their civilian supervisors, rather than by a handful of Marines.
Regardless, the Nation editorial provides a handy illustration of where we are as an actual nation, and it’s nowhere we want to be.