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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Marine conditions in Haditha

Now, I've got to say that this(BBC) is the first complaint of this type I've heard, and a number of reporters have been embedded with Kilo Company and have not mentioned this, even in their interviews or "day in the life" pieces.

And they were operating under disturbing circumstances.

Kilo Company's headquarters were three miles north of Haditha, at a vast dam across the Euphrates. It is a big target, because it supplies power to much of southern Iraq. Four hundred men of the First Marine regiment were based in this decaying rabbit-warren. Conditions were so disgusting, many just moved out.

They set up these unofficial shacks alongside it. Conditions at the dam have been described as "feral".

Oliver Poole is one of the few reporters to have been there, shortly after the alleged massacre. He was shocked by these strange, primitive huts, which lacked even basic hygiene. "You walked in and the first words were 'F off', and they were ripping pieces of wood apart to feed the fire," he said. "You could see the conditions in which they lived. And they were filthy.It was disgusting."

There seemed to him to be no real discipline.

"The fact that the officers had let conditions deteriorate to the level in which where people living in such basic environment, that says something," he said. "Where were the officers keeping the standards that the US military keeps in the field?"

2 Comments:

  • Signs of deteriorating occupation army. Kinda like some German forces in France in 1944.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:30 AM  

  • Again, this is the first I've heard of it being this bad, so I'm treating it with a grain of salt, but the marines are deploying for 6-9 months per deployment, so it isn't like that is a temporary base.

    If true, it is not good. Again, several officers of Kilo company were relieved not too long ago unrelated to Haditha. There've been a couple of really weird reports, like the chariot races.

    http://bornatthecrestoftheempire.blogspot.com/2006/06/charlie-dont-surf.html

    Mike

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 7:08 AM  

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