Haditha

So I've been following the events regarding the potential massacre at Haditha pretty closely, mostly because of Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich. When I first read a news article about this, the name seemed familiar, later, I saw that he was from my hometown, I asked my buddy Joe who has the memory of an elephant if I knew him, and he told me that Frank was a freshman on our soccer team when we were captains. Talk about hitting home. I started to remember this shy little kid, typical band kid, slightly nerdy, real skinny, not exactly the type of guy you would expect to grow up and turn into a leader of young Marines. Turns out though, that's the path he took. So I've been keeping tabs on it, read a Vanity Fair article describing the events that took place that day, and Frank was leading these men when an IED went off and killed a Marine in the patrol. The story goes on to say what occurred, I'm assuming told from the Marines' side. After reading it, I thought to myself, well, Frank is fucked. They're going to make an example of him, he's going away for a long time, and the guy has two or three kids. I absolutely feel for him and his family. Today, a Washington Post story comes out basically describing the government's take on what happened, and it makes Frank appear to be a cold blooded, vengeful SOB who shot Iraqis in retaliation for losing one of his men. Now I don't know what to believe. I hope with everything I am that he had a real reason for shooting these guys and that the Marines didn't turn him into something resembling Pvt Pyle from "Full Metal Jacket" where he lost his humanity and his ability to feel for others. What sort of demons are the rest of our servicemen and women going to be coming back with? How many more situations were they put into where innocents were killed but a Time reporter wasn't around to start the investigation? All this so that President Decider could get back at Saddam for trying to kill his daddy. One day we will find out the true impact that this war is having upon these men and woman who have given so much and hopefully that will lead to some serious change in the dynamics and leadership in our country.