Blame for alleged war crime goes to the top

Re “Photos Indicate Civilians Slain Execution-Style,� May 27

A widely quoted government official said the execution-style slaying of unarmed Iraqis by U.S. Marines represented “a total breakdown in morality and leadership, with tragic results.� Let’s stop acting shocked at such horrors. War has always produced these atrocities. We consider the killing of innocents exceptional when in fact it is inherent in war. We train our young soldiers to kill but want them to keep their honor and sanity. What nonsense!

Honorable warfare is a lie we tell ourselves to deafen the tragedy of our slaughter. War itself represents “a total breakdown in morality and leadership, with tragic results.�

PAUL ASTIN

Topanga

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Soon Haditha in Iraq will be as infamous as My Lai, a location in that other American enterprise: Vietnam. There is the point of view that an unprovoked invasion of Iraq was a war crime itself. Because those responsible make our laws, control our military and own our courts, there is little chance that they will ever be “brought to justice,� to use one of their own favorite phrases.

JACK WRIGHT

Marina del Rey

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Don’t blame only the Marines. Our government sent these young men into triple jeopardy with three tours of duty in Iraq. This administration has condoned torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. We cannot justify what the Marines have allegedly done, but we are all responsible. These troops have watched their buddies get killed while there is no outcry at home.

When do we start putting the responsibility where it belongs? How many more young men do we have to turn into indiscriminate killers? When do we stop compounding a mistake and look for a way out? The time is now.

JOAN AND WALTER KORNBLUH

Sherman Oaks

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The thought of a small mob of Marines allegedly whacking two dozen Iraqi civilians in response to a roadside bomb is horrifying. But The Times’ story missed the big picture. It casually notes that in addition to the Marines’ individual actions, “jets dropped 500-pound bombs� in the general vicinity where the roadside bomb was detonated. How many civilians did those presumedly authorized bombings kill? How many tens of thousands of civilians have been murdered by U.S. bombs?

Oh, sorry, those aren’t “murders,� they’re “collateral damage.� The buck for the “total breakdown in morality and leadership� your article describes doesn’t stop with a single unit of stressed out, third-tour-of-duty Marines. It stops at the very top, with our commander in chief.

JESS WINFIELD

Los Angeles

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Re “Bloody Scenes Haunt a Marine,� May 29

The idea that The Times would run a story on Memorial Day of an alleged war crime perpetrated by a small group of Marines was upsetting. As an Iraqi war veteran, I figured The Times might have found a way to put politics aside for a moment. Oh well, when The Times is out of circulation, you can look forward to no one even batting an eye to the sacrifice you made for this newspaper.

BRIAN TURNER

Upland