Haditha | A breakdown in morals and humanity

How many more innocents will be slaughtered before we get our troops out of Iraq. George W. Bush didn't pull the trigger on these people, but their blood is on his hands. Did I say on his hands? Hell, dubya's got blood up to his neck, Iraqis, American troops and the other unfortunates that found death in "Mess-opotamia". For power, oil and corporate profits.

"Democracy assassinated the family that was here,"
--graffiti on one of the houses
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From Timesonline:

Marines and the 'massacre': a neighbour tells of aftermath
From Ali Hamdani in al-Haditha and Ned Parker in
Baghdad

"GRAPHIC accounts of the apparent slaughter of unarmed
civilians have been obtained by The Times as Washington braces itself for the
results of an investigation into what threatens to be the most damaging military
scandal in Iraq.
On Saturday Iman Hassan, a 10-year-old Iraqi girl, told The
Times how she had watched US marines kill her mother, father, grandmother,
grandfather, four-year-old cousin and two uncles.
Residents in the insurgent
stronghold of al-Haditha have now stepped forward to corroborate elements of
Iman’s story and to describe to The Times the murder of a second family, which
included five children, the youngest of whom were two and three years old."
--
"The latest accounts given to The Times paint a gruesome picture
of events on
November 19. About a quarter of an hour after the attack on
Iman’s house,
Mohammed Basit, 23, an engineering student, said that he
watched as Marines
entered the home of his neighbour, Salim Rasif, He peered
from a window as the
family, including Salim’s wife, sister-in-law and their
five children, rushed
into a bedroom.
I saw them all gathering in their
parents’ room, then we heard a bang which was most likely a hand grenade, then
we heard shooting,” he said.
Fearing for his life, he moved away from the
window.
Throughout the next day the Americans cordoned off Salim and Iman’s
homes,which are located about 20 metres apart. The next night Basit and his
father slipped inside Salim’s house.
“The blood was everywhere in Salim’s
bedroom,” Basit said. “I saw organs and flesh on the ground and a liver on the
bed. Blood splattered the ceiling. The bullet holes were in the walls and in
different parts of the house.
"
--
"Later Basit joined
relatives and friends who went to al-Haditha mortuary to pick up the bodies of
those whom the Marines had killed. The corpses were zipped in plastic bags.
“They were all shot, even the kids. They were shot more than one time, mostly in
the chest and the head,” he claimed.
Salim’s daughters — A’isha, 3, Zainab,
2, Noora, 15, and Saba’a, 11 — and his eight-year-old son, Mohammed, were among
the dead."

The complete article