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When leadership lies; when troops are deployed without a strategic objective; then these massacres occur often. Haditha is not the only one. Routine is for a patrol to empty boxes of 50 cal ammunition into cars and buildings. Are they under attack? Of course not. Anyone comes too close, then 50 cal rounds are routinely expended. 50 cal is a massive round. Americans have been that vicious in Iraq for that long. Free use of firepower has been considered acceptable behavior for years now. Just another reason why so many Iraqi civilians are victims.
Combine lies by the leadership with daily (routine) use of weapons and a population where everyone is the enemy; this is Vietnam where shooting someone only because he was a gook. Such violence was then and is now common. Of course. Reasons for so much killing - including daily emptying of 50 cal ammo boxes - means *accidental* death is daily.
It all starts and will occur often because the leadership has lied repeatedly. That does not justify a massacre. That just reminds us that Haditha, Abu Ghriad, etc were not and will not be the only such events. Another lesson of Vietnam. Many other such events will remain unknown and not prosecuted. Even Haditha was ignored for months until those crime scene photographs could no longer be ignored. This is what happens when soldiers are put in such positions where they cannotwin; where the people they are ordered to protect are also the enemy. When soldiers are deployed to do what is not possible.
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