US Features
Haditha rekindles memories of My Lai
By Mike McCarthy
Jun 3, 2006, 19:00 GMT

Washington - An alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians by US Marines is raising comparisons with a notorious Vietnam massacre by Americans 38 years ago that badly damaged the image of the United States.

It was March 1968 when US troops marched into My Lai, a small village in South Vietnam, and murdered at least 300 men, women and children. Some estimates put the toll as high as 500.

My Lai helped turn the US public against the Vietnam war. Now, the US military is grappling with another terrible incident that will do little to help weak public support for the war in Iraq.

The Pentagon is investigating whether US Marines killed 24 men, women and children in Haditha in November in retaliation for a roadside bomb attack on their convoy that killed a Marine.

Another inquiry is trying to determine whether US soldiers fatally shot an unarmed man to death west of Baghdad. In a third case, the US military Friday cleared soldiers of wrongdoing in the deaths of civilians in Ishaqi, Iraq, concluding that they responded properly to hostile fire.

The killings in Haditha, coupled with the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, will likely become a dark chapter in US military history.

Based on what has been reported, there are strong similarities with My Lai.

Both attacks were carried out by angry US soldiers after after one of their comrades was killed. Both represent the horrible things that can happen in wars when young men lose control.

The US soldiers at My Lai claimed in reports that they had killed insurgents. The Pentagon is investigating whether the Marines filed false reports about what happened at Haditha, although the alleged coverup in this case has emerged much more quickly than it did with My Lai. The Marines reportedly said the roadside bomb killed the civilians.

Some Marines involved at Haditha could face charges that carry the death penalty. Only one US soldier involved with My Lai, Lieutenant William Calley, was convicted. He spent a few years in custody.

Haditha and My Lai were located in hostile regions that had taken a toll on US casualties. Haditha is in the so-called Sunni triangle, the heart of the Iraqi insurgency. My Lai's region was host to some of most resilient Viet Cong fighters, often supported by the civilian population.

But one key difference between Haditha and My Lai is that the rampage in Vietnam was by drafted soldiers who did not receive the same quality of training provided to the Marines, widely regarded as America's most disciplined soldiers.

A key criticism of the military's handling of My Lai is that it did not aggressively prosecute those involved, just as critics fault the Pentagon for not holding high-ranking officers accountable for what happened at Abu Ghraib.

If the same perception surrounds the Haditha probe, US credibility on human rights issues - and more broadly, Washington's declared aim of fighting terrorism with democracy - could suffer.

The Pentagon has acted swiftly in the case, ordering on Thursday that all coalition troops in Iraq receive fresh moral and ethics training within 30 days.