Guerrillas in the Midst

What we got here is... failure to communicate
--Road prison Captain, Cool Hand Luke (1967)

We are here to help the Vietnamese, because inside every gook
there is an American trying to get out.
It's a hardball world, son. We've gotta keep our heads
until this peace craze blows over
--Pogue Colonel, Full Metal Jacket (1987)
___________

As usual, in the hearings which began today into the Marine killings of 24 Haditha residents in late 2005, a Captain Stone will be the highest officer investigated for wrongdoing.

But more troubling than this shunting off of responsibility to those lower down in the chain of command is what is this event implies--the impossibility of any working relationship between U.S. command and Iraqis, both unaffiliated civilians and their government. As a case study of the U.S. Iraqi occupation, the Haditha incident suggests this situation is dire.

It is the blase and paranoiac nature of USMC division commander Major General Huck's comments which is most distressing. They suggest a disaffection borne of disappointment and lack of any positive situational reinforcement. The only thing that matters is survival, and a sort of self-justified stance of quashing anything that suggests defiance toward an already defeated unit.

The Marines and the U.S.military in general have a real perception problem when placed in the kitty litter box that is Afghanistan and Iraq. MG Huck said in a statement given at Camp Lejeune, nearly five months after the incident at Haditha, ''They may have been guys pulling the trigger, for all I know.''

Time magazine reporter Tim McGirk broke the story in March 2006, reporting that women and children were among the dead, but MG Huck saw his report through jaundiced eyes. ''Allegedly, McGirk received his info from the mayor of Haditha, who we strongly suspect to be an insurgent.''

The problem in Haditha is a microcosm of the larger problem experienced by U.S. troops elsewhere in Iraq. The equation is simple: The mayor is thought to be an insurgent, and the Marines are there to kill insurgents; the mayor represents the people, therefore, the people must be insurgents.

In an untenable contradiction, the Marines were in Haditha to protect the local population from the local population. If they refuse to be protected, then kill them, as they are the enemy, too.

The New York Times reported, ''Recently unclassified documents suggest that senior officers viewed the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha in late 2005 as a potential public relations problem that could fuel insurgent propaganda against the American military, leading investigators to question whether the officers’ immediate response had been intentionally misleading.'' (''Propaganda Fear Cited in Account fo Iraqi Killings.'')

This kind of cherry story for the bad guys is what you get when you are not sure whether you are there to kill or cure. To cover up your vacillation regarding whether you've done a good or a bad thing, you lie. Kick a little dirt on them, and pretend they are left over from Saddam's days.

Regarding the possible outcome of Capt. Stone's hearing to determine whether he will stand trial at a court martial, John D. Hutson, former Navy judge advocate general said,

''Intangible considerations can also influence military lawyers in deciding whether to recommend charges when wrongdoing is more ambiguous. 'If you know the guy and he’s done well and he’s never done anything dishonest before you might give him the benefit of the doubt.''

I'm sure that the benefit of a doubt should be offered to young officers after a massacre. Every officer should be allowed a free pass for one practice massacre. That's part of military protocol, right?

But the key point which is rarely discussed is that the military's attitude reflects that fact that everyone from E1 to at least 08 is totally demoralized. They are feeling hopeless that their military skills are not solving the problems, so they are resorting to mindless violence, a la My Lai in Vietnam.

MG Huck--who dismissed the Time reporter inquiries ''because [he] saw him as a naïve conduit for the mayor of Haditha''--reflects this desperation is his inability to entertain the possibility that the killed civilians were unaffiliated with the insurgency. It reflects a weary attrition of the soul.

Not only are they demoralized, but they don't even know it, and this sublimation shows itself as violence which is easily shrugged off by a warrior culture.

The demoralization allows massacres, torture, detentions and all accompanying ugly facets of this Phony War on Terror.