Free Republic

CAMP PENDLETON ---- A four-star general testified Monday that a lower-ranking officer did not influence his decision to bring criminal charges against the battalion commander in charge of Marines tied to the deaths of 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq. Gen. James N. Mattis also testified there was no pressure from above ---- be it from the Pentagon, congressional contacts or the Marine Corps commandant ---- for him to criminally charge anyone in the Haditha killings. "I make my own decisions," Mattis said. (snip) He also said the intense media spotlight on the killings "had no influence whatsoever" in his decision...

May 30, 2006, 6:33 p.m. Men@WarHadithah in context. By Mackubin Thomas Owens The basic aim of a nation at war is establishing an image of the enemy in order to distinguish as sharply as possible the act of killing from the act of murder.—Glenn Gray, The Warriors It seems like only yesterday. It was 1991 and a U.S.-led coalition easily expelled Saddam Hussein’s army from Kuwait, signaling to some the emergence of a “revolution in military affairs” that would “transform the very nature of war.” Americans at home watched their TV screens in awe as precision-guided munitions flawlessly struck...