DMZ "Friendly Fire" Inspiration
The inspiration for DMZ’s “Friendly Fire” came partly from the Haditha killings, where Marines shot up a few houses filled with Iraqi families back in 2005 (it was also partly inspired by a 60 Minutes interview with some of the soldiers involved (Sgt. Frank Wuterich) and the disgusting way Scott Pelley conducted both the interview and himself). Today I saw this news story:LOS ANGELES - Military prosecutors dropped all charges on Friday against a Marine accused of killing unarmed Iraqi women and children at Haditha in 2005, abruptly dismissing the case on the eve of trial with little explanation.
Lance Cpl Stephen B. Tatum became the fifth Haditha defendant out of eight to see charges dropped in a case that brought international condemnation on U.S. troops in Iraq. Three Marines, including accused ringleader Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, still face court-martial later this year.
The Marines offered little explanation, saying in a statement only that the case had been dropped “in order to continue to pursue the truth-seeking process into the Haditha incident.” A Marine spokesman declined to elaborate.
Iraqi witnesses say angry Marines massacred unarmed civilians after a popular comrade, Lance Cpl. Miguel “TJ” Terrazas, was ripped in half by a roadside bomb. Defense attorneys maintain that the civilians were killed during a pitched battle with insurgents in and around Haditha.Other Marines have testified that Tatum, who initially faced more serious charges of unpremeditated murder and negligent homicide, was among those who “cleared” two Iraqi houses after the roadside bombing, resulting in 19 deaths.
Another Marine testified Tatum told him to shoot a group of Iraqi women and children he found on a bed in a closed room. That Marine said he walked away but saw Tatum return and heard a loud noise, possibly gunfire or a grenade.
Of the eight Marines originally charged in the November 19, 2005, killing of 24 men, women and children at Haditha, five have now seen their cases dropped.
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I was struck by a moment in the 60 Minutes interview when Pelley asked Sgt. Wuterich if, in retrospect, knowing everything he knows now, if he would have conducted himself the same way, if he would have cleared those houses the same way, if he would have followed orders the same way. Sgt. Wuterich replied that yes, he would. He did what he was trained to do. The sneer on Simon’s face, the look of revulsion and the overall condescending nature of his questioning was almost too much to watch. But listening to Sgt. Wuterich was fascinating, seeing the inherent confliction between orders or standard training and this fucked-up kind of war situation. Snippets:(Sgt. Wuterich): “We reacted to how we were supposed to react to our training and I did that to the best of my ability. You know the rest of the Marines that were there, they did their job properly as well. Did we know that civilians were in there? No. Did we go in those rooms, you know, it would have been one thing, if we went in those rooms and looked at everyone and shot them. You know, we cleared these houses the way they were supposed to be cleared,” he says.
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After hearing noises behind a closed door, they kicked in the door and threw in the grenade.
“Frank, help me understand. You’re in a residence, how do you crack a door open and roll a grenade into a room?” Pelley asks.
“At that point, you can’t hesitate to make a decision. Hesitation equals being killed, either yourself or your men,” [Sgt. Wuterich] says.
“But when you roll a grenade in a room through the crack in the door, that’s not positive identification, that’s taking a chance on anything that could be behind that door,” Pelley says.
“Well that’s what we do. That’s how our training goes,” [Sgt. Wuterich] says.
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Pelley tells Wuterich, “the accusation is made that your men went berserk that you got hit by an IED, one of the favorite guys in the squad was cut in half and lying in the road and your guys went nuts. You dropped the five guys next to the car because they happened to be there and then you went to the closest house and then you went down the hallway throwing grenades and shooting and you just killed everybody you could find.”
“That’s absolutely untrue,” Wuterich responds. “My emotion was pushed back. My training came to play…”
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“What I did that day, the decisions that I made, I would make those decisions today,” he says.
“What I’m talking about is the tactical decisions. It doesn’t sit well with me that women and children died that day,” Wuterich says.
“There is nothing that I can possibly say to make up or make well the deaths of those women and children and I am absolutely sorry that that happened that day.”
What was Wuterich thinking when he went to bed that night?
“That I’m not sure I want to go to sleep tonight, because I don’t know what I’m going to dream.”
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I am not passing judgment on anyone directly involved (except Scott Pelley, and if you see the video of the interview, you might agree with me on that). But if you read that DMZ story arc, I believe that blame in these situations tends to go right up the chain of command ladder and shouldn’t rest solely on the shoulders of the guys on the ground.
Sgt. John Ford, an Army and Navy veteran, wrote the introduction to “Friendly Fire”, including the following:
“…Now put him in a bad situation — scratch that, a NIGHTMARE situation,-
with minimum support, poor leadership, and the ever-present reality
of punishment for any and every action. Shit goes down and he’s the
one left holding the blame, game over man. Set up for failure from Day One.
“You don’t think this really happens? Go to war and then disagree with
me.”
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