Last week in these pages I argued that U.S. unconditional surrender policy and refusal to negotiate with Saddam Hussein had cost hundreds of Iraqi civilian lives and led to the despicable atrocities such as the loss of priceless and irreplaceable 5,000 year old artifacts. See "Unconditional Surrender leads to Atrocities."
Well, now ABC News has uncovered the "smoking gun" (or in this case, the smoking ruins of a house) showing that the U.S. in fact did everything possible to prevent a negotiated surrender. "Missed Opportunity? U.S. Attack May Have Ended Saddam Surrender Attempt."
According to ABC news, Hussein sent his head of intelligence, Gen. Taher Haboush, to meet and to try to work out a surrender deal with a tribal chieftain who had previously worked with the CIA. After Gen. Haboush, left the house of the intermediary, the chieftain apparently tried to get in touch with his CIA contact on a satellite telephone and mentioned the name of Gen Haboush. U.S. military intelligence apparently intercepted the call and sent in an air-strike to bomb the house. ABC reports that the chieftain and 17 of his family members died during the attack, but Gen. Haboush escaped uninjured. The incident reportedly occurred on April 11.
This incident only underscores two facts, which were probably already well established. First, the Pentagon simply had no interest in a negotiated surrender. They were more interested in killing Haboush than in negotiating with him Secondly, U.S. forces were homicidally "trigger happy" and would drop bombs on houses when they really had no idea who or what was in them. The U.S. may not have deliberately targeted civilians, but on the other hand, the Pentagon never would go too far out of its way to protect civilians when they were in the line of fire.
A few weeks ago, the Pentagon made a great deal out of Iraqi forces apparently pretending to surrender, but then firing on U.S. soldiers when they came to accept the surrender. The Pentagon called that a war crime. Is the Pentagon going to characterize it as a war crime to kill people who were trying to surrender, including dropping a bomb on a house full of civilians?
April 23, 2003
