It is not US Marines who should be on trial
The acclaimed film-maker Nick Broomfield reflects on the making of his film on the bloody battle for Haditha, and the reconciliation he witnessed between US soldiers and Iraqis
I approached the making of Battle for Haditha in the same way as making a documentary, listening to all sides of the story. After meeting with the Time magazine journalist responsible for writing the article that revealed the massacre in Haditha, Anna Telford (my researcher and co-producer) travelled to San Diego to the Marine base at Camp Pendleton to meet some of the Marines of Kilo Company. The first thing that struck me was how unbelievably young they were. Two of them were Mexican and had joined to get American citizenship, and one had enlisted to escape the gang life he was leading in San Diego. At first, they came out with a barrage of disgusting humour, about killing women and children and chasing each other around with body parts. By the second day they were revealed as traumatised young boys, unable to deal with what they had been through.
Most of Kilo Company had fought in Fallujah, where they had seen terrible carnage. They had come back to the United States unable to relate to their families and girlfriends or to sleep at night. They suffered from recurring nightmares, and were often unable to function and fit into civilian society. Most had asked the Marine Corps for psychiatric help, even before the atrocity at Haditha, but, scandalously, none had received it. They were all now on tranquillisers facing uncertain futures, haunted by memories. Anna and I both felt they were victims who were now being treated as human waste.
Our next stop was Amman in Jordan to meet with some of the survivors of the massacre. Haditha had been a wealthy Sunni city with big houses, good schools, a place where people went on honeymoon to sit by the Euphrates. Most of the survivors had initially supported the American liberation, but eventually they began to feel that things were much worse under the Americans than under Saddam. They felt they had no control over their lives and future.
When the Americans simultaneously demobilised Saddam’s army and postponed democratic elections, many of the residents of Haditha, who had been in Saddam’s army, joined the insurgency, which operated along army lines. However, when their funds started to run out, they had to turn to foreign fighters from Syria and Saudi Arabia, including al-Qa’eda, and so the insurgency became more fundamentalist. Alcohol was banned and anyone who spoke English was executed on suspicion of being a spy. Satellite phone networks were blown up and the residents of Haditha started to fear for their lives.
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Marc Silver
March 7th, 2008 3:15pmNO, IT IS NOT THE MARINES OR THE BUSHES OR THE BLAIRS THAT SHOULD BE ON TRIAL, BUT THE SHORT-SIGHTED, NARROW-MINDED CRITICS LIKE NICK BROOMFIELD WHO CANNOT SEE THE COSMIC REVOLUTION OCCURING IN THE MIDDLE EAST, THE MOMENTOUS BATTLE BETWEEN 7TH CENTURY AND 21ST CENTURY PERSPECTIVES, PROVOKED BY TOO MUCH TECHNOLOGICAL EFFICIENCY (E.G. 9-11). ITS DOWNRIGHT SHAMEFUL HOW RIGHTEOUS SUCH SPIRITUALLY BLIND PHILOSOPHERS MAKE THEMSELVES OUT TO BE, ALWAYS DRAWING THE LINE ON ISSUES TO SERVE THEIR NEGATIVISM. BUT HISTORY WILL DRIVE THEM INTO OBLIVION WHEN THE BIRTHPANGS OF UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD ARE OVER.
Al Frick
March 7th, 2008 4:34pmBroomfield makes ridiculous general assumptions about the psychological impact on Marines. "The majority of them have mental problems? " Did you poll the majority? Other "less biased" studies show that the majority of them are fine when they come back stateside - Of course a man's life is changed when he shoots a terrorist but what do you expect? Broomfield went out looking for a negative story to tell and that's what he found. Heck, I can go to Disneyworld and find a negative story if you want - about the poor 25 year old who gave up his dreams of being a doctor to wearing a mouse suit in 100 degree heat. Where are the impartial filmmakers?
Robert Wahl
March 7th, 2008 6:14pmArticle ignores the mistakes made just after Sadam's army was defeated. First was the assignment of civilian Bremer instead of allowing the military leadership to stay in command. Next was the decision to disband the Iraq army instead of using them with the expenditure of a few bucks. Next was de-Bathification instead of an intellegent seperation of sheep from wolves and using the capable sheep. At least the article mentions the failure to us any Iraq contractors.
cuffleyburgers
June 5th, 2008 4:42pmThe incompetence of the post Saddam administration of Iraq is beyond belief and beyond exaggeration.
Blair and Bush are certainly culpable for the lies surrounding the invasion in the first place but this would matter less had matters been handled properly afterwards.
Instead the appointment of Bremer as proconsul led to a succession of grotesquely bad decisions and it is these which have led to the current situation.
If:
* The borders had been sealed
* Law and order maintained
* Army not disbanded
* Debaathification managed so that there wasn't a wholesale breakdown in the administration
* nationalized indsutries not closed
* local contractors used to supply food and construction services
Then I very much doubt the situation would be anything like as serious as it is.
Your correspondent himself said that at first there was relief Saddam was gone.
So the Bremer should be in the dock and Bush for appointing him and not sacking him sooner and Blair for not giving Bush a hard time about the cockups