I protest.

Lies.

OpenDemocracy published Jo Wilding's account of her trip to Fallujah in "Inside the fire," after which their editor requested that the Pentagon respond to the article. Here is how they responded:

Dear Mr Henderson

There are those who falsely report that US forces are targeting non-combatants. The truth is, US forces have attempted to protect civilians to the best of their ability. When US forces are attacked we apply the appropriate, proportionate combat power to eliminate that resistance. With respect to the Marines in Fallujah, they are being very deliberate and precise in the application of their combat power to prevent non-combatant casualties in the area.

Respectfully,

Bruce Frame
Capt, U.S. Marines
CENTCOM Spokesperson

I find their respond stunningly unsurprising. Could anyone possibly expect them to admit that the Marines in Fallujah have been targeting civilians? Of course they say whatever they're supposed to say, whatever will make them look good in the eyes of the American public. They call Jo Wilding a liar, yet why would she lie about such things? What does she stand to gain? On the other hand, it is easy to see what the Pentagon stands to gain by lying. As well, soldiers have targeted noncombatants before in similar situations, so why should we see this situation as different from those?

Reading their claim that they "apply the appropriate, proportionate combat power" and that the Marines in Fallujah "are being very deliberate and precise," all I can think is that these people believe that we are fools. Only a fool would believe such lies. "Appropriate, proportionate combat power" goes out the window when one is under fire from all sides, and when any male over the age of thirteen may be a Mujahedin how can any Marine remain "deliberate and precise?"

They've done this very thing before, when soldiers were destroying villages in order to "save" them and when atrocities such as the one in Mai Lai were taking place. A veteran, Wayne Standiford, writes about that latter incident and has this to say in summation:

The lessons of Mai Lai are painful and hard to digest. As we fight another guerilla war in Iraq and other places we must hope our soldiers can withstand the frustration of this type of warfare. The line grunt's temptations is to "Kill em all and let God sort em out". It is a temptation we as a nation must not succumb to and we must pray or warriors can stay on the right side of sanity as they chase killer ghosts who plant bombs, fire missiles at our helicopters and drive cars full of explosives.

It looks like Mr. Standiford's worst fears are realized. Not only have we crossed his "break over point into the bottomless pit where the monsters steal honor," those who should know better, those who should have learned the lessons of Viet Nam, are denying it, even as those actually there are reporting it. Someone please tell me just why Jo Wilding would lie about this and the Pentagon would not.

Mr. Standiford ends with a quote from Pubilius Syrus:

What is left when honor is lost?

For the men on the ground in Fallujah, horror, blood, death and loss of humanity. They will pay for this time with the rest of their lives, just as the veterans who returned from Viet Nam have paid.

For the rest of us, shame that we allowed this to happen. It is our fault, for we as a people did not stand up against those who made this happen even though we knew it was wrong. We, too, will pay, in one way or another. It could be by losing more of our children to an endless war in the Middle East, it could be by losing our own lives in a terrorist attack in the United States, or it could simply be by losing the respect of those of other nations. When last I was in China, people were attracted to me simply because I am an American. The next time, will they shun me for the same reason?

For those who lead us into these atrocities, nothing at all, for they are utterly without honor. Having never known honor, they fail to understand, or even notice, when it is lost by those who follow them. And this is the worst of all, for in all likelihood those who are most to blame for these atrocities are the least likely to pay for their crimes.