Haditha Massacre

[Gripen]

I just watched a movie called Battle for Haditha.

Its based on a true story - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haditha_killings

Would someone kindly explain why this happened (other then the IED - that's pretty self explanatory)

[shawn a]

Would you kindly explain the Mumbai massacre, the Holocaust, the Tiannemen Square massacre, The September 11th massacre, The Dujail massacre, The Marzabotto massacre, The Sivas massacre, The Beit Lid massacre, The Port Arthur massacre, The Maguin Danao massacre, The Nanoor massacre, The Gunditjmara massacre, the Myall Creek massacre, The Battle Mountain massacre, Stalin's purges, The Coniston massacre, The Bedford Downs massacre, the Mandchuko experiments, The Rape of Nanking, The Bali Bomings, The Kurdish Gas massacre, The murder of Anwar Sadat, The Achille Lauro, The massacre of passengers on Egypt Air Flight 648, The Israeli Embassy massacre in Argentina in '92, The 2003 Casablanca massacre--targeting westerners and Jews, The wonderful month of April, 1997 in Lebanon where civilians were massacred with knives, swords, chainsaws, and burned alive, Pan Am flight 103, The fatwa of Feb. 23rd, 1998, The World Trade Center bombing, Operation "Bojinka", The Moscow theatre incident in 2002,  Oh, yeah, and the Fort Hood massacre?
There's more, and they are not movies based on a true story.
I myself was once naive and full of optimism about the goodness of the spirit, but soon found out, as you will, that throughout human history fire has often been fought with fire, for better or worse.
So--Were military aircraft used in the Battle for Haditha?

[Gripen]

No planes, just a Huey medivac chopper.

And I meant how could the Americans do this in this day and age, especially in Iraq, which as far as I know is a Muslim country and the Americans are trying to show the Muslim world that they are not bad (the Americans that is), then because 1 soldier is killed and a few are wounded its justified to go and kill 24 innocent people, including women and children?

I mean if the civilians had guns and were trying to kill the Americans then sure, it'd be self defence, but going into peoples houses and killing them because they can?

WTF.

And then they wonder why more people blow them selves up and kill the US soldiers and the rest of the Coalition soldiers over there.

[shawn a]

ONE soldier was killed?
How about 25?
Or are you going by what the MOVIE represented?
Do you really beleive all you see in movies "based on a true story"??
I guess wikipedia is the gospel (or koran) of the new age.
Facts are hard to come by, aren't they??
Especially when we (the pontificators) are not at the scene of the events.
"The fog of war"
Ever driven in fog, Grip?

[F-111 C/C]

I agree with Shawn. Fortunately I have been spared of participating in combat but have the highest respect for what 'our' (and I mean our nations collectively) men and women are faced with everyday and wouldn't for a minute second guess their actions (or re-actions as the case may be). I haven't 'walked in their boots' and can't even begin to try to quantify how I would re-act to the situations they (or anybody else in combat) have to deal with every minute. We may not be perfect but we're a hell of a lot better than who we are fighting that's for damn sure!

[RecceJet]

A large percentage of the composition of the regular "grunts" in an infantry unit are young kids, just out of school and ready to prove they are men. When competent officers and SNCOs are in charge, this is fine. The various units move and act in disciplined manners.

When the morale of a unit is low, the officers and SNCOs may lose a lot of control of their "men" and it becomes easier for these kids to do stupid things. A lot of these join the army with the mentality of getting out there and killing "them rag-heads". Ask a bunch of soldiers why they join up and that's often what you'll hear.

I don't have the details behind this particular event, but I would not put it past the lower ranks that their passion for fighting got the better of them. It's not something that has a rare occurrence. Soldiers take their lead from the SNCOs that are supposed to inspire them, based on direction from their commanding officer. If there are issues down this chain, accidents and tragic events can easily happen.

[F-111 C/C]

As unfortunate as it is, events like this have taken place in every war, and will probably continue to, do to the unnatural stresses combat puts on human beings psyche. Media coverage has seemed to make it more prevalent now but as the coverage got better (Korean war, Vietnam war, etc.) so to did the number of reports but I can assure you it has always happened to some extent.

[shawn a]

I wonder if Atilla the Hun's troops suffered from post-traumatic-stress-syndrome.
And I wonder what Atilla the Hun did about it.