Time to bring the troops home...
According to this editorial in this morning's New York Times, the public is entitled to straight answers on what went wrong at Heditha, Iraq, and who will take responsibility for it.
It seems to me we already have a pretty good idea of what went wrong. The Marines just "lost it" because of the killing of one of their beloved comrades. I don't expect that anyone up the chain of command will be held accountable for what happened or for the cover-up.
At this stage the American people might want to ask what are the lessons to be learned from Heditha. Clearly we have put our soldiers in an impossible situation. We are now seen as a army of occupation. And it is just about impossible for our soldiers to distinguish friend and foe.
Providing some in-service training on military ethics is not likely to prevent future "mistakes" like what occurred at Heditha. It's time to bring the troops home.
It seems to me we already have a pretty good idea of what went wrong. The Marines just "lost it" because of the killing of one of their beloved comrades. I don't expect that anyone up the chain of command will be held accountable for what happened or for the cover-up.
At this stage the American people might want to ask what are the lessons to be learned from Heditha. Clearly we have put our soldiers in an impossible situation. We are now seen as a army of occupation. And it is just about impossible for our soldiers to distinguish friend and foe.
Providing some in-service training on military ethics is not likely to prevent future "mistakes" like what occurred at Heditha. It's time to bring the troops home.
posted by Ed Deevy at 6:42 AM
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