Official: Iraq civilian deaths unjustified

Military investigators probing the deaths last November of about two dozen Iraqi civilians have evidence that points toward unprovoked murders by Marines, a senior defense official said Friday.

Ah, so they’re finally admitting to what we already knew.

The Marine Corps initially reported 15 deaths and said they were caused by a roadside bomb and an ensuing firefight with insurgents. A separate investigation is aimed at determining if Marines lied to cover up the events, which included the deaths of women and children.

Why wouldn’t they lie? For some reason, they needed to cover their butts, so they lied. I don’t know why they would actually need to lie to protect themselves, though, since the U.S. already approves torture.

If confirmed as unjustified killings, the episode could be the most serious case of criminal misconduct by U.S. troops during three years of combat in Iraq. Until now the most infamous occurrence was the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse involving Army soldiers, which came to light in April 2004 and which President Bush said Thursday he considered to be the worst U.S. mistake of the entire war.

I think this “episode” and the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture scandal are on-par with each other. Have I mentioned how much I love it when Western media uses doublespeak to convey in a soft sense something horrible? If I haven’t before, I have now.

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