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A reporter's shock at the Haditha allegation (Was embedded with Marines - different perspective)
CNN ^ | Tuesday, May 30, 2006; Posted: 1:57 p.m | Arwa Damon

Posted on 05/30/2006 12:49:13 PM PDT by gondramB

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- It actually took me a while to put all the pieces together -- that I know these guys, the U.S. Marines at the heart of the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha.

I don't know why it didn't register with me until now. It was only after scrolling through the tapes that we shot in Haditha last fall, and I found footage of some of the officers that had been relieved of their command, that it hit me.

I know the Marines that were operating in western al Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target.

I saw their horror when they thought that they finally had identified their target, fired a tank round that went through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They then rushed to help the wounded -- remarkably no one was killed.

I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47....

How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't.

And I was with them in Haditha, a month before the alleged killings last November of some 24 Iraqi civilians.

I'm told that investigators now strongly suspect a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.

Haditha was full of IEDs

(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...


TOPICS: Front Page News
KEYWORDS: arwadamon; damon; haditha; husayba; ied; ieds; iraq; oif; ubeydi; wot
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To: Darkwolf377

You're reaching.


21 posted on 05/30/2006 1:09:08 PM PDT by em2vn
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To: gondramB
"I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target."

More of the insanity in how we are fighting terrorists in Iraq. Our troops get pinned down by fire and are afraid to shoot back, lest the anti-American media pounce on them, or their own superiors court martial them. These pc constraints in the so-called "rules of engagement" are the main reason why this thing isn't over yet. The other side is fighting a vicious war, while our guys are forced to fight as 'gentlemen'. Who is the worst enemy of our troops, Mohammed, the media, or our own political leaders?

22 posted on 05/30/2006 1:09:56 PM PDT by TheCrusader
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To: pinz-n-needlez; onyx; ohioWfan; Texasforever; BigSkyFreeper; Dog; My2Cents; Howlin; nopardons; ...

FYI Ping


23 posted on 05/30/2006 1:09:57 PM PDT by Mo1 (DEMOCRATS: A CULTURE OF TREASON)
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To: Darkwolf377; gondramB
Read carefully. This isn't a story symapthetic to the accused, but a "banality of evil" story--what Bush's war is doing to nice, ordinary Americans.

Maybe I'm dense but I'm not getting that. She's asking the 'Can you believe it?' question to her colleagues but never gives her or their answers.

It seems like they would only ask 'Can you believe it?' if their own experiences with those Marines would make them question the allegations.

24 posted on 05/30/2006 1:10:46 PM PDT by siunevada (If we learn nothing from history, what's the point of having one? - Peggy Hill)
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To: gondramB

Didn't she know they were already convicted by Murtha.

The line from later in the story "After being hit by an IED, his men were searching the area and found a massive weapons cache in a mosque" is only more proof that our enemies take advantage of our sensitivity.


25 posted on 05/30/2006 1:11:02 PM PDT by Barney Gumble (A liberal is someone too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel - Robert Frost)
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To: Darkwolf377
a "banality of evil" story--what Bush's war is doing to nice, ordinary Americans.

That's Murtha's angle: Something happened, let's assume the worst and blame Bush.

26 posted on 05/30/2006 1:12:53 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (Build the fence. Sí, Se Puede!)
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To: pissant
First time I saw a picture of Cindy Sheehan, I mistook her for an old fishing buddy and I had known him for over 30 years.

Like I said, with liberals, it's getting hard to tell.

We raise parakeets (not commercially....it's like guppies. It starts by accident) and my son was asking how to tell the males from the females before they are mature enough to display the differences. I told him it doesn't matter. Just put them all together and let them figure it out.

I guess that's the way liberals multiply.

27 posted on 05/30/2006 1:13:15 PM PDT by capt. norm (W.C. Fields: "Hollywood is the gold cap on a tooth that should have been pulled out years ago.")
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To: gondramB
We missed the beginning of the operation, and ended up entering Haditha that evening. The city was empty of insurgents, or they had gone into hiding as they so often do, blending with the civilian population, waiting for U.S. and Iraqi forces to sweep through and then popping up again.

The terrorists are "civilians" as are the "insurgents"

Everyone but uniformed security personnel are "civilians"

28 posted on 05/30/2006 1:13:59 PM PDT by Just A Nobody (NEVER AGAIN..Support our Troops! I *LOVE* my attitude problem. Beware the Enemedia!)
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To: bnelson44; Coop

Here's one for the record book...a reporter..from CNN no less.- who has (hold on to your seats) favorable things to say about this unit of Marines.


29 posted on 05/30/2006 1:15:01 PM PDT by SE Mom (God Bless those who serve.)
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To: TheCrusader
More of the insanity in how we are fighting terrorists in Iraq.

More of the inanity from one of the resident keyboard kommandos.

30 posted on 05/30/2006 1:16:57 PM PDT by r9etb
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To: gondramB
This further validates my suspicions on what transpired.

God Bless our troops and keep them safe.

31 posted on 05/30/2006 1:19:21 PM PDT by DCPatriot ("It aint what you don't know that kills you. It's what you know that aint so" Theodore Sturgeon)
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To: gondramB
This report CONFIRMS that NOT all Marines in Haditha during the time of the ALLEGED killings were NOT stark raving mad men and is MUCH MORE pertinent to the investigation than the MSM's reporting of HEARSAY and MURTHA's maniacal rants.

The FACT that company commanders were fired around this time does bode well for the Marines. You don't cover up a crime by FIRING people whose men committed crimes. It means you take action FIRST against those who are in charge and then start a thorough investigation.

32 posted on 05/30/2006 1:19:28 PM PDT by PISANO (We will not tire......We will not falter.......We will NOT FAIL!!! .........GW Bush [Oct 2001])
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To: em2vn; Darkwolf377

I think this story is a big positive.


33 posted on 05/30/2006 1:20:21 PM PDT by NutCrackerBoy
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To: gondramB

BTTT


34 posted on 05/30/2006 1:22:17 PM PDT by Right_in_Virginia
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Comment #35 Removed by Moderator

Comment #36 Removed by Moderator

To: siunevada

This story starts off encouragingly enough, and then goes absolutely nowhere. I have no idea what her point is supposed to be.


37 posted on 05/30/2006 1:24:45 PM PDT by Burr5
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To: Burr5
After reading the entire article, it looks like CNN inadvertently (or purposely) left off a page 2 of the report.
38 posted on 05/30/2006 1:30:10 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (USAF, TAC, 12th AF, 366 TFW, 366 MG, 366 CRS, Mtn Home AFB, 1978-81)
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To: gondramB

So far this just an allegation.

EVEN IF ITS TRUE, the parties involved should be suitably punished and we should press on. Under no circumstances should we permit the leftists to turn something like this into another Mai Lai.

Wars are war and terrible things happen in war. You try to minimize them but they happen.

There was less journalistic horror at dead American soldiers and dead western hostages.


39 posted on 05/30/2006 1:33:00 PM PDT by ZULU (Non nobis, non nobis, Domine, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. God, guts, and guns made America great.)
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To: Burr5; Baynative
I have no idea what her point is supposed to be.

Yeah, it's just sort of 'I knew these guys'.

I wish she had said either, 'It doesn't fit with what I experienced' or 'I wasn't there, maybe someone did snap'.

40 posted on 05/30/2006 1:33:11 PM PDT by siunevada (If we learn nothing from history, what's the point of having one? - Peggy Hill)
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