Haditha: The War Gets Real

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

Read The Haditha Massacre by Marjorie Cohn.

An article in yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune which is reprinted from the New York Times News Service, cites a report by "one Marine officer" that "inspectors suspected at least part of the motive for the killings was to send a message to local residents that they would 'pay a price' for failing to warn the Marines about insurgent activity in the area."

Curiously, that paragraph is missing from the same story in both the print and online editions of yesterday's New York Times. For some reason, the Times had second thoughts about that paragraph, and removed it, after the copy had been sent to other papers over the wire.

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs." "I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

Willful killing is considered a war crime under the US War Crimes Act. People who commit war crimes can be punished by life in prison, or even the death penalty if the victim dies. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, a commander can be held liable if he knew or should have known his inferiors were committing war crimes and he failed to stop or prevent it.

Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are knowingly prosecuting a war of aggression in Iraq. Under the United Nations Charter, a country cannot invade another country unless it is acting in self-defense or it has permission from the Security Council. Iraq had invaded no country for 11 years before "Operation Iraqi Freedom," and the council never authorized the invasion.

A war that violates the UN Charter is a war of aggression.

Under the Nuremberg Tribunal, aggressive war is the supreme international crime.

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs." "I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

Haditha is likely the tip of the iceberg in Bush's illegal war of aggression in Iraq.

"We have a Haditha every day," declared Muhanned Jasim, an Iraqi merchant. "Were [those killed in Haditha] the first ... Iraqis to be killed for no reason?" asked pharmacist Ghasan Jayih. "We're used to being killed. It's normal now to hear 25 Iraqis are killed in one day."

"We have a Fallujah and Karbala every day," Jasim added, referring to the 2004 slaughter by US forces in Fallujah and bombings by resistance fighters in the Shiite city of Karbala.

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."

Graffiti on one of the Haditha victims' houses reads, "Democracy assassinated the family that was here."

So much for winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people.

We must pull our troops out of Iraq immediately, and insist that our leaders be held to account for the war crimes committed there.

"I held her out like this," he said, extending his arms, "but her head was bobbing up and down and the insides fell on my legs."