Collective Responsiblity and the Haditha Atrocity

Something I did when I moved to this city was join a parish church. I had never done that before. Previously my faith did not move me to formalize a relationship with a place of public worship. I picked a bad time to register, however. Shortly after registering, I was also made an official petitioner in the Chapter Eleven bankruptcy case filed by the archdiocese. The archbishop sought bankruptcy protection because the archdiocese was being sued in multiple cases for child abuse by it's priests. The claims, most of which were based on long past incidents of molestation, had the potential of bringing financial ruin on the Church in western Oregon. I was not pleased to being formally associated with responsibility, however attenuated, for behavior I find abhorrent and had nothing to do with. I was not even alive when some of the alleged incidents occurred and no claims were made for abuse since I had become a registered member of a parish. Nevertheless, the federal bankruptcy judge determined all registered parishioners should be parties to the case. I believe this ruling was prompted by the questionable legal position taken by the archdiocese that it's property was held in trust for parishioners and therefore could not be sold to satisfy claims. The secular newspaper also made repeated note of the collective responsibility for the victims' damage claims. A global settlement of the claims has been reached, so there is sense of relief among the faithful as well as some lingering resentment over being formally identified with the past evil behavior of religious authority figures.

The legal closure of the child abuse cases here brings me, in a circuitous way, to collective responsibility for a terminal case of abuse in a remote place: the Haditha atrocity. Two dozen Iraqis were apparently executed by US Marines in retaliation for a bomb that blew up one of their patrol vehicles and its occupants. A marine was gruesomely killed. In the opinion of an investigating Army general, the Marine Corps command deliberately ignored reports of civilian deaths to protect their own, and fostered a culture that allowed marines to considered Iraq civilian deaths to be insignificant. There was virtually no follow up investigation withing the Corps after the November 19, 2005 incident was exposed by a local journalist shooting video. Civilian witnesses maintain the marines went on a killing rampage. The lieutenant in command at the time believes the marines did nothing wrong despite the execution of five unarmed men sitting in a car at the scene, and the killing of the occupants in nearby houses including women and children lying in bed. The officer has received immunity to testify against three marine enlisted men charged with unpremeditated murder in the incident. Four officers are accused of dereliction of duty for failing to report what happened. All charges against a sergeant have also been dropped in return for his testimony.

Whatever the outcome of the courts martial, and the outcome is doubtful because the criminal investigation was mishandled, the impact of the Haditha atrocity cannot be understated. It is only one of several authenticated incidents of the US military using unauthorized force against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. Each incident undermines any claim to moral ascendancy the US makes to justify it's occupation. Each incident motivates civilians to resist the foreign occupiers. Each alleged war crime involves a uniform that represents every American. No American soldier has the cover of an anonymous bomb maker. These young soldiers have been sent to Iraq in our name stuffed with heads full of lies about fighting terror or bestowing democracy to accomplish a mission impossible. Their best efforts will not end an Iraq civil war that our cynical "regime change" triggered. So its our responsibility to end their hellish predicament and bring them home. Collective responsibility is hard to accept.