Saturday, June 03, 2006
Winning Hearts and Minds
"The [Haditha] affair, which centres on claims that members of Kilo Company of the 1st Marine Regiment coldly killed 24 civilians, including infants and a man in a wheelchair, in Haditha in western Iraq last November after a roadside bombing killed one of their own, may also become a defining moment in the American public's view of the war."
Actually, some of us knew this war was wrong before marines started killing innocent children.
"So, Haditha becomes another of the names at which we wince, along with Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and My Lai," Molly Ivins, the columnist and author noted yesterday. "Tell you what: Let's not use the "stress of combat" excuse this time. According to neighbours, the girls in the family of Younis Khafif – the one who kept pleading in English: "I am a friend. I am good" – were 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1 What are they going to say? ‘Under stress of combat we thought the baby was 2'?"
It's too late for winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. And it's too late for winning, period. We need to get out of there.
Independent Online Edition > Middle East
Actually, some of us knew this war was wrong before marines started killing innocent children.
"So, Haditha becomes another of the names at which we wince, along with Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and My Lai," Molly Ivins, the columnist and author noted yesterday. "Tell you what: Let's not use the "stress of combat" excuse this time. According to neighbours, the girls in the family of Younis Khafif – the one who kept pleading in English: "I am a friend. I am good" – were 14, 10, 5, 3 and 1 What are they going to say? ‘Under stress of combat we thought the baby was 2'?"
It's too late for winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. And it's too late for winning, period. We need to get out of there.
Independent Online Edition > Middle East
