The Haditha Massacre: A Prehistory

Venturing where none but fools should venture in, I offer this time-saving prehistory of the Haditha Massacre story, as it will be covered by the media.

Step One: Melodic Modulation. This has already been largely accomplished. The military and Congressional war heroes (John Warner, John McCain) change their tune from one of skeptical derision of media stories about a "massacre" to concerned utterances that something went terribly wrong in Haditha.

Step Two: Construction of the Context. Ironically, a brief resuscitation of the Iraqi war effort will be achieved during this phase, in which the valiant cause shouldered by America's Finest is spun at the best Fox/MSNBC/CNN hagiographic RPM. Batter up at Hardball, as Chris Matthews, with one of his characteristic high hard ones which telegraphs none of the answer he seeks, drills Marine Lt. Colonel Faustian Granite right in the ribs: "Colonel, we know the kids, they're great kids, I go to Bethesda every waking moment I'm not in the studio, they're under tremendous pressure, and it's like Vietnam, how do we know? ya know, the good guys from the bad guys, you can't, fish in the sea, Chinese Revolution, Mao, the whole thing, they snap, they see their buddies go down, I was never in the military, never been in anything rougher than a pillow fight, but we sit in judgment, how can we do that? they're the ones with their asses on the line, and I know I talk rough, but I'm a rough guy who really asks the questions no one else dares ask." Colonel Granite: "I think that's right, Chris."

Step Three: Obfuscation of the Moral Imperatives. This step is handled with one Rumsfeld press conference. "Where is it to be, the bad or the good, in time we see it everyday, good golly Moses, you'd think we use them for target practice, instead of the careful, painstaking discrimination of things we don't know yet must know, in the midst of chaos, order, of a high degree, of a physics like probability."

Step Four: Sanitization Through Senate Hearing. John Warner and Nelson or Whatever (Jay, I guess) Rockefeller convene the Committee. Levin and McCain are there, along with several other Senators who can't phrase questions designed to elicit answers. Moral outrage, demands for accountability, where does the buck stop, chain of command, blah, blah, blah.

Step Five: Down the Memory Hole. The squad leader and two of the trigger men are singled out for court martial, prosecuted and sentenced to short stretches in the stockade. The Iraq War continues.