Tonight, PBS’s Frontline visits the heart of darkness that is Haditha.

From PBS’s website for The Rules of Engagement:

FRONTLINE cuts through the fog of war to reveal the untold story of what happened in Haditha, Iraq—where twenty-four of the town’s residents were killed by U.S. forces in what many in the media branded “Iraq’s My Lai.” With accusations swirling that the Marines massacred Iraqi civilians “in cold blood,” the Haditha incident has led to one of the largest criminal cases against U.S. troops in the Iraq war. But real questions have emerged about what really happened that day, and who is responsible. Through television interviews with Iraqi survivors and Marines accused of war crimes, FRONTLINE investigates this incident and what it can tell us about the harrowing moral and legal landscape the U.S. military faces in Iraq.

Though much of public television has been infected by reactionary politics, I have continued to trust that Frontline producers still take their journalism and news reporting seriously. The story of Haditha deserves no less.

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2 thoughts -

1) April consumer credit is way up, the highest since Nov, and a total surprise to everyone who should know. Nov is right before Christmas, so that is naturally a high spot. What happens in April?  Read more 

From vastleft.com:

Among right-of-center journalists, Christopher Hitchens can be a refreshingly independent thinker.

But his recent Haditha piece finds him playing the partisan hack, with a cheesy attempt to downplay an incident that’s proving thorny for war hawks.

The article’s title and putative case are “Why Haditha Isn’t My Lai.” I read it with interest, as I’d previously conflated the two. I was eager to see if the estimable Mr. Hitchens might, indeed, establish that the two atrocities — the latter alleged — were not at all comparable.  Read more 

Can’t wait till they get home:

Julian Borger in Washington
Monday June 5, 2006
The Guardian

The marine unit involved in the killing of Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November had suffered a “total breakdown” in discipline and had drug and alcohol problems, according to the wife of one of the battalion’s staff sergeants.  Read more 

I wonder why that is? The towel-snapping? The tantrums? Not that cold-blooded murder of civilians rises to the level of matters to which His Excellency must pay attention (unlike Bass. Let me google to see if those bass were large mouth. Yep! They’re Republican bass, alright!) Hey, and guess who gave Bush the news: The press:

President Bush learned of reports that U.S. Marines killed two dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians only after reporters began asking questions, the White House said Tuesday.

Godfrey Daniel! Pesky reporters!  Read more