by James Glaser
May 25, 2006

A story in the Marine Corps Times, calls the killing of innocent civilians last November 19, by a Marine unit in Iraq, a massacre. The dictionary tells us that a "massacre" is "the act or instance of killing a number of usually helpless or unresisting human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty."

We learn two new bits of information from this story. First, the Marines killed 24 civilians, not the 15 that has been reported in the past. Of the 24, at least seven of the victims were women and three were children. The second thing we learn, is that twelve Marines may face courts-martial for the killings.

I believe this is the first reported massacre in the Iraq war, but I doubt if it is the first massacre. Any time innocent civilians are killed in any sort of number, that is a massacre. Last year George Bush was using the number "thirty thousand," as the number of Iraqis killed so far in his war. Others have used one hundred thousand, to describe the number of innocent Iraqis killed.

How many innocent Iraqis were killed in our shock and awe bombing campaign? How many were massacred when we destroyed Fallujah?

This might be the first reported massacre, but for sure it isn't the first massacre, nor will it be the last.

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