The Haditha Scandal's Other Casualty: By MATTHEW COOPER

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The Haditha Scandal's Other Casualty
With the Pentagon completing its probe into whether U.S. forces massacred civilians one November morning in Western Iraq, the damage to America's image abroad could take a further hit
By MATTHEW COOPER/WASHINGTON
Magazine: Did Marines Kill in Cold Blood?
Posted Friday, May. 26, 2006

On Thursday night, at his joint press conference with Tony Blair, President Bush said that the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was the greatest mistake the U.S. has made in the war of Iraq: "I think the biggest mistake that's happened so far, at least from our country's involvement, is Abu Ghraib. We've been paying for that for a long period of time."

The emerging Haditha scandal may come to eclipse that. As first reported by TIME back in March, there is increasing evidence that a small number of Marines carried out unlawful and unwarranted killings of civilians in Western Iraq, including the Sunni-majority city of Haditha. On Friday, the New York Times reported that preliminary results of a military inquiry showed that the civilians killed in the city last November had not died from a makeshift bomb, as the Pentagon had initially stated, nor in a crossfire with insurgents, as was later announced. One of the most damning pieces of evidence investigators have in their possession, John Sifton of Human Rights Watch told TIME's Tim McGirk, is a photo, taken by a Marine with his cell phone that shows Iraqis kneeling — and thus posing no threat — before they were shot. The Marines refused to comment on the investigation.

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The possibility of a U.S. massacre of Iraqi civilians could have major ramifications. It could further diminish support for the United States through the Arab and Muslim world, where America is already held in notoriously low regard. And the massacre could accelerate American opinion against the war. During the Vietnam War, the My Lai massacre <http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,901621,00.html> of what may have been as many as hundreds of South Vietnamese civilians helped turn the tide against the war. In that case, initial Pentagon reports similarly dismissed the possibility of a civilian massacre.

Although the numbers of dead in Haditha come nowhere near My Lai, in an era of instant communications, the impact for the United States could be far worse. And given that the revelations of the possible massacre comes as Saddam Hussein is standing trial for ordering the massacre of Shi'ites when he was leader of Iraq, the timing couldn't be much worse.

more at:
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1198843,00.html

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