Christopher has finally spoken up about Haditha . For the sake of what is left of his reputation he should not have bothered.
We are told the massacre is "not like My Lai" indeed that is true, for one thing some US soldiers intervened to stop the My Lai massacre, in this case they did not.
However the whole "not like My Lai" argument is of course a smokescreen. We could add that certain features of this massacre are not like Glencoe, the rape of Nanking, Sabra and Chatilla etc etc etc. The point of the comparison from Christopher is not to add to our understanding it is to divert it, to move the argument from a very dangerous channel for the war-mongers (Your troops are killing the people you claim they have liberated) to an convienent one (Look at those stupid liberals, they know nothing about Vietnam)
The whole piece is sickening, it does it's best to justify the slaughter ("It's not amusing to see fascist killers hiding behind human shields and then releasing obscene videos of the work that they do. Nor is it rewarding to clean up the remains of a comrade who has been charred and shredded by a roadside bomb. To be taunted while doing so must be unbearable") then this line.
"Only pacifists—not those who compare the Iraqi killers to the Minutemen—have the right to object to every casualty of war."
So no objecting to children being shot guys, unless of course you are Ghandi.
Finally this
" People like to go on about the "fog" of war as well as the "hell" of it. Hell it most certainly is—but not always so foggy. Indeed, many of the dilemmas posed by combat can be highly clarifying, once the tone of righteous sententiousness is dropped."
Got that everyone? get rid of your "tone of righteous sententiousness" and all will be well. Stop worring about the dead children for goodness sake you pompous moralisers.
I'll leave it there apart from one little point. Nowhere in this essay does Christopher show even the slightest hint of concern for murdered Iraqi women and children, not a word of sympathy or regret. Indeed he seems to be arguing that even to mention them is not worth his attention. Lets all keep this in mind the next time our Christopher decides to weep crocodile tears for the fate of the Iraqi people.
“The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant." • "If it is an offense to justice to hold people who may have been victims of mistaken identity or of vendettas by other factions, then it is also an offense to justice to release psychopathic killers who believe that they have divine permission to throw acid in the faces of girls who want to attend school." • "Don't be such a lesbian!
”
