Haditha Handwringing
Haditha Handwringing U.S. Marines are under investigation for alleged misconduct in the deaths of Iraqi civilians. The inquiry into the events at Haditha last November 19 is ongoing—^but the...
...The military leadership seems competent—and can be shaken up if it is not...
...But few societies are capable of acknowledging what happened, bringing the killers to justice, and instituting changes that make it less likely to happen again...
...The anti-American left can barely be bothered to conceal its glee...
...As for the pro-American left, they write more in sorrow than in anger...
...William Kristol...
...We prove it...
...It is heartening that he met last week, in private, with a group of diverse experts on Iraq, in order to get fresh points of view about the situation there...
...Supporters of the war have engaged in a vigorous debate, in these pages and elsewhere, about how better to fight this war...
...They must be investigated, and the individuals involved, and their commanders, must be held accountable and punished...
...It would be encouraging if more people at senior levels of the military seemed to be engaged in this kind of serious thinking and rethinking...
...Our political and military leadership has to be serious enough to reconsider failing tactics and strategy, and capable enough to do what it takes to win...
...But it must get won...
...What makes us exceptional is that we stand for liberty, and that we are willing to fight for liberty...
...But our doing this "proves" nothing...
...That's how we show we are different from the jihadists...
...war crime...
...What we do have to prove is that we are strong enough to fight this war, and intelligent enough to win it...
...We don't just assert it...
...And the buck stops with the president...
...The inquiry into the events at Haditha last November 19 is ongoing—^but the Nation's editors already know what happened: A U.S...
...It would be encouraging if a single person in the White House seemed to be engaged in a real effort to learn from mistakes, so as to adjust our policy to make success more likely...
...Obviously the president wasn't going to say this...
...The war against the jihadists, a war Beinart supports, is not a metaphorical one...
...Winning the wars this nation commits to is also the way we keep our honor clean...
...Even if there were ten Hadithas, we would still not have to "prove" that we are "different from the jihadists...
...Here's the New Republic's Peter Beinart: Americans can be as barbaric as anyone...
...The president understands that this war isn't going to be won unless he ensures that it gets won...
...The last thing we need in response to Haditha is hand-wringing liberalism...
...No, it isn't...
...That's the liberal version of American exceptionalism, and it's what we need right now in response to this horror...
...This is happening...
...We don't need to "prove" we are different from the jihadists by bringing our own soldiers, if they have done something wrong, to justice...
...The idea would be offensive if it were not ludicrous...
...A military "massacre...
...Perhaps...
...They will support what has to be done...
...And it won't get won if we succumb to liberal hand-wringing, or indulge in conservative happy talk...
...The remarkable men and women in uniform will do their jobs in an exemplary way...
...But here's the hard, Trumanesque truth: In war, terrible things happen, including crimes and abuses and cover-ups...
...A "cover-up...
...Let's be clear: Crimes and cover-ups cannot be excused or tolerated...
...Does the president really believe, as he said at his recent press conference with Prime Minister Blair, that the Iraq war's greatest mistake was Abu Ghraib...
...It would be encouraging if more civilians high up in the Pentagon were engaged in such a debate...
...Liberals may want to win a war on terror without fighting, and are shocked that in a war, crimes and abuses occur...
...All nations' soldiers commit crimes, and decent nations punish them...
...It won't get won if the president doesn't aggressively defend the honor of our soldiers and Marines...
...But it is not true that "what makes us an exceptional nation with the capacity to lead and inspire the world" is that we recognize we can be barbaric and that we punish barbarism...
...After all, the damage done to the war effort by Abu Ghraib pales beside the damage done by not having enough troops in theater, by refusing to send additional troops, by wasting a year before beginning seriously to build up the Iraqi army, by the April 2004 aborted battle for Falluja, and the like...
...We are capable of Hadithas and My Lais, so is everyone...
...As the Marine Corps commandant points out, the Marine Hymn pledges that we "keep our honor clean...
...What makes us an exceptional nation with the capacity to lead and inspire the world is our very recognition of that fact...
...Fine...
...Or was this just a way of ducking the question...
...Of course we must and will do this...
...The question is whether our political leadership is strong and able enough...
...But does he understand it...
...And also a "willful, targeted brutality designed to send a message to Iraqis"—something a cover-up would seem to make more difficult...
...The American people understand we are at war...
Vol. 11 • June 2006 • No. 37
