HELIOLITH

The UK’s Sunday Times runs the story today of the officially recognized massacre of 24 innocent civilians, including the elderly, disabled, women, and children in Haditha, Iraq at the hands of at least 4 U.S. Marines who according to one military official “suffered a total breakdown in morality and leadership” it’s important to read what happened.

I choose not to reprint the quotes here, from the few survivors, they are intense and emotional, like the words of a 12 year old girl who watched her whole family be gunned down and destroyed by hand-grenades while she hid under the body of her dead brother. Read it if you have the courage. I won’t reprint it because I don’t want to sensationalize their sad story.

Tomorrow is Memorial Day, and I salute our fallen soldiers, (faces of the fallen) both from this war and all of the others. War and killing is not honorable in my worldview, but to die for something you believe in, to sacrafice your life in the hopes that you are helping others, even if you are terribly wrong, that sacrafice is honorable, and clearly there are many who deserve my humble respect. It’s unfortunate that this massacre was revealed just before this Memorial Day weekend, casting the shadow of doubt into the minds of so many who are wondering like myself, how often this occurs without coming to light.

edit 5/30: Saheli makes some excellent points on her Memorial Day entry, and the rest of this entry is listed as a comment on her post there.