Haditha An Insurgent Citadel Part Three

Father of Marine backs son’s Iraq comrades
Exactly what happened that day remains unclear. Miguel Terrazas’ father, Martin, said the Marines his son fought with told him that after the car bomb exploded the Marines took a defensive position around his son’s battered vehicle. Insurgents immediately started shooting from nearby buildings, and the insurgents were using women and children as human shields, Martin said he was told.

The Marines shot back because “it was going to be them or” the insurgents, Martin said of what his son’s fellow Marines briefly described to him.

“It’s very hard for me, I don’t even listen to the news,” Terrazas said of reports of the mass killings.

Marine officials initially gave the same story, that 15 civilians were killed Nov. 19 in the explosion and a subsequent firefight that also killed eight insurgents. Several months later Time magazine and then Arab television stations obtained a videotape of the scene, showing the bodies of women and children. The video, Iraqis’ accounts of the day and other emerging details sparked a criminal investigation.
Terrazas said he has met with many from his son’s unit who told him they did only what was necessary to survive. He wouldn’t say when he spoke with them.

“Those Marines just did their job,” he said. “Some of these kids were saying, ‘We have to live with it’.”

Former Marine Luis Terrazas, Miguel’s uncle, said Marines are trained to stay cool under pressure.

“Jarheads don’t just go out and kill because they get frustrated,” Luis Terrazas said. “Their training is exquisite. It just doesn’t make sense.”

I have done 4 parts to this.
Part One tells about Haditha and what it is like there
Part Two tells about Blood money and the money for lies
Part Three tells about Miguel Terrazas’ father and what he has to say about all of this
Part Four and this one which is my comment just an opinion of a girl that has never served our country but adores our troops and appreciates what they and our Veternas have done.