Below is the text copy of a post I made on another thread. It's my assessment of Haditha. Please know that I am concerned about what happened there but it helps to be aware of the background.
First, as far back as September of last year Haditha has been a problem. It's a Sunni stronghold and rumor has it that at one time mighty Al-Zarqawi himself was holed up there.
There is a marine outpost near Haditha and hidden bombs are often found around the outpost so let's state right now that Haditha is no friend to the American military.
Finally, after months of trying piece by piece to clear Haditha of insurgents, a joint operation by the marines and the Iraqi army took place. It's very, very important to please note that the residents of Haditha were warned repeatedly, REPEATEDLY, to clear out, that a convoy of marines and Iraqis was coming in.
On the day all this stuff came down, first, a humvee carrying marines was blown up by an IED. There's some question that this IED was improvised to be attached to a propane tank which made the blast more horrific.
The driver of the humvee was killed, an American marine. Right after the IED explosion, the unit was allegedly taking gunfire from nearby homes.
By now, all angry and likely scared, a bunch of Iraqi army guys and marines headed to a house where they thought the gunfire was coming from. They broke into a home where the family was all huddled in the parlor, a room with a handy window, reading the Koran. Which is what we all do, of course, when explosions and gunfires erupts around us, we gather our children and grandchildren and congregate in a room to read the Koran.
The marines thought they heard the ratchet of an AKA 47 so they burst into this lovely parlor room and it's questionable what happened then. EXCEPT, get this, the entire account of what happened was described by a NINE YEAR OLD GIRL. Allegedly she was in the corner, huddled, and trying to protect her younger, EIGHT year old brother. Said eight year old brother was too "traumatized" to talk to Time magazine.
Hey, the kid's eight, he was there, why can't he talk? Perhaps he has a different story than his sister?
Some people in this house got shot and killed but it's not at all clear why. Silly me, I just don't think the marines shot and killed people for no reason but hey, I could be wrong. The nine year old, eight year old and another woman and baby escaped from this house so it's not like the marines just willy-nilly shot everyone. A grandfather and son were killed, I forget who else but please don't forget the warning given to residents of Haditha so why was this loving grandfather keeping his family so close to the danger?
The gunfire keeps going and the unit goes back outside to find out where. They think the gunfire is coming from yet another house so someone, coulda been an Iraqi army guy who knows, threw a grenade in that house. The grenade allegedly hit a propane tank in that house and went boom. A bunch of people in that house were killed.
Still the gunfire continued and the Iraqi army guys charged another house. A man and four of his sons were killed in this encounter. One of that guy's sons lived next door and he's telling Time a story that you'll not believe.
He says that the Iraqi guys keeping guard outside the house and told him that the Americans are killing everybody and he better go hide. The next day this guy goes into the house and finds his four brothers killed.
The guy then says there the way the blood was dragged across the room that it was "obvious" that the Americans put his four brothers in the closet and shot them there.
Now why would the marines bother to put four men inside of a closet and shoot them? Why not just shoot them right out in the open? The Americans had allegedly shot everybody else in the town right out in the open?
Or could those four brothers have been HIDING in the closet and when the marines found them, THEN they got shot? That would explain the bloody drag marks.
TWO AKA-47's WERE recovered from somewhere so where did they come from? I'm thinking from inside that closet but I could be wrong?
Happy law-abiding civilians do not ordinarily have AKA-47's just sitting around.
Also, even before this all began, the Haditha hospital was believed to be a safe house for Sunni terrorists. So guess where all those lovely pictures came from? That very same hospital.
When you deliberately keep women and children around you to keep the Americans from killing you, and some of them end up getting killed anyway, well the next step is to exploit this and get the story out there.
The biggest problem in this story, at least as I see it, is that the house that got the grenade suffered the loss of a lot of civilians. According to this corrupt terrorist Haditha hospital, the victims of this blast had bullet wounds and were not killed by the propane.
The pictures seem to show bullet wounds but how do we know they were the people in the propane tank house?
Anyway, folks this story has many holes in it and really has questionable sourcing. A terrorist sympathizing and protecting hospital and an nine year old child?
Another problem, allegedly the marines reported that the IED was hooked up to a propane tank and that is how all the Haditha killings occurred. Allegedly. From "undisclosed military sources".
If anything comes of this, believe that there will be a great big mountain built from a molehill. Why didn't those residents leave, what with over two month's notice? I suppose people in Iraq might have propane tanks in their kitchens but that sure is odd. Iraqis are notorious smokers and you'd think they'd keep such equipment outside like normal people.
Also, don't forget the Iraqi army was with the marines during their foray into Haditha. As I understand the Iraqis have a much shorter fuse than the Americans. Could the Iraqi army guys have thrown that grenade or shot those bullets?
Or could this all be another "sting" to catch leakers in the military.
Murtha sounds more and more everyday like he has dementia. He looks like a Diabetic and Heart Patient, both of which are prone to Dementia symtoms. The more he talks the easier it will be for the Pubbie Gal Candidate running against him in Western PA (in a big Military area) to show how anti Military he has become. Her name escapes me,but I know Western Pa freepers will come up with the Data post haste. I believe that he and Pelosi have deals cooked up to save his Bacon from being Prosecuted for helping out her relatives in Marin County in California with Defense Contracts.