The Amazing Vagaries of War

By: James E. Stoll, 6/10/2006

I am 75 years old and a U.S. Navy veteran of the Korean Conflict. Having served during one, I abhor the need for war.

The son of one of my favorite nieces, by marriage, is serving his second tour of duty with the U.S. Army in Iraq. He is 28 years old and he is already an old man. Yesterday, I received a report that a second member of his unit was killed in action, or murdered, as you choose to say it, in Iraq. Naturally, he was killed by automatic weapons fire from inside a building adjacent to the street that his squad was patrolling. No “innocent” Iraqi men, women and children were “murdered in cold blood” as a result of response action initiated by the remaining members of his squad, because there was none. The applicable “rules of engagement”, would not permit such action, in this type of situation. So, his living squad members gently carried his dead body back to their barracks for “processing”. There has been no mention yet of his dying on the evening news, and his death did not evoke any accolades from his commander in chief. He will simply become another statistic, number such and such, and the contents of a flag-draped box to be sent home to his loved ones. His name will soon be forgotten by all except those who loved him and will miss him at home.

Yesterday it was also reported that one Iraqi man and three Iraqi women were killed some days ago, in Iraq, for no known reason other than that they were in the same building with Al Zarqawi and his spiritual advisor, when two 500 pound bombs fell on their heads from two U.S. warplanes circling at 12,000 feet overhead. That attack was ordered by senior commanders, on longstanding authorization from their Commander in Chief, The President of the United States. No one has expressed any confirmed knowledge of how many “innocent” men, women and children were in the building at the time of the attack. The President of the United States made a special announcement of the action from Camp David, with glowing praise for the results of the mission and glowing accolades for the two brave airmen who had executed this action with such speed and efficiency. They will probably get a medal. No mention was made regarding the “innocence” of the other man and three women who were also killed. Nor was any mention made about any violation of “the rules of engagement” pertaining to this action, even though it was totally a one sided event.

Several months ago, another Marine was cut in half when an improvised bomb, buried in the earth beneath a city street, exploded beneath the lightly armored vehicle in which he was riding, while on an early morning patrol in Haditha, Iraq. Twenty-four reportedly “innocent” men, women and children were killed during the response action mounted by the remaining members of the dead marine’s unit, in the aftermath of the explosion. For whatever reason, the response action taken by the dead marine’s comrades has been labeled a “massacre” and a “horrible atrocity”, by media outlets of questionable integrity around the world, by elected leaders of our government, by American news commentators, by a host of “expert”, and ”former” anything you can think of, and by the Prime Minister of Iraq, all babbling about how these young Marines must be charged with cold blooded murder and, if convicted, either executed or jailed for life. On last Sunday, I watched and listened, on national TV, as three separate panels of selected “experts” on everything, charged, tried and convicted these young marines, even though other news media had reported that an investigation of the action would not be complete for between 6 and 8 weeks and that the families of the “innocent” victims would not allow investigators to exhume their bodies, for the purpose of gathering forensic evidence.

Even a cursory examination of the above three actions indicates that “The Rules of Engagement” for airmen, senior commanders and the remote commander in chief are significantly different from the “Rules of Engagement” for squad leaders and foot soldiers in direct line of fire on the ground. If the rules were the same, then the two airmen, the commanders who gave the order to attack, and the commander in chief who authorized the order, should be charged with the same “horrible atrocities” as are being demanded against the young marines in Haditha. I agree that the world is a better place because Al Zarqawi and his Spiritual Advisor are dead. But what about the four other people who were killed with him, three of them women? Is the world a better place because they died too, or don’t they count?

I know that no one, including me, is going to recommend that The President of the United States should be charged with heinous crimes. This is war, and he did what he had to do. But his actions, in response to the mad-dog activities of Al Zarqawi, were identical to the responses of the young marines, in Haditha, to the mad-dog activities of the person who buried the bomb beneath the roadway. Kill everyone in the area. Whether you do that with two 500 pound bombs, from 12,000 feet, or with automatic weapons and grenades on the ground, makes no difference of substance, other than that it is a lot safer and costs a lot more money doing it from 12,000 feet.So, as a respected and well recognized leader in our nation, or as just a common citizen, if you have an ounce of human decency left in your soul, you must stand up and publicly demand that The President of the United States pardon everyone who was involved with the events in Haditha, remove all reference to those events from their records, give them an honorable discharge from the service, if they so desire, and send them home to their loved ones. They have suffered enough, at the hands of their own countrymen and countrywomen. He should tell anyone who disagrees with those decisions that they are simply not negotiable. This is war and the same rules apply to everyone, regardless to which side you are on or what your stature and your responsibilities might be.