Marine demoted to private to end Haditha trial. Did military justice work?

Did the US military justice system work?

That’s the question defense analysts are asking on the heels of a Marine Corps judge’s recommendation Tuesday that the sergeant in charge of a team of US troops responsible for killing 24 Iraqis, including seven children, receive 90 days confinement and reduction to the rank of private.

As a result of a pretrial agreement, however, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich will not serve any time in prison.

Staff Sgt. Wuterich was the final defendant to be tried in what became the infamous Haditha case. Seven other US troops were charged along with Staff Sgt. Wuterich for their actions at Haditha in 2005 and for allegedly obstructing justice afterward.

Six ultimately had their cases dropped, and one was acquitted.

Following closely on the heels of revelations about Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, Haditha became synonymous with accusations that the US military was recklessly disregarding the safety of civilians and those in its custody.

After a roadside bomb killed one Marine and two others on the morning of Nov. 19, 2005, in the Anbar Province town of Haditha, Wuterich and his squad went on a rampage, allegedly in pursuit of a gunman who fired on them from a house after the explosion. Wuterich was accused of manslaughter, assault, and dereliction of duty for his role.

During the plea hearing Monday, Wuterich expressed regret for his decision to “shoot first, ask questions later.” Throughout the trial, the defense team emphasized the fog of war and Wuterich’s duty to protect his fellow Marines from harm.

Wuterich’s plea bargain, struck by military lawyers, stipulated that he receive no more than three months in prison. He remains on active duty.

The sentence handed down by the Marine Corps judge, Lt. Col. David Jones, is only a recommendation, however. The final decision about whether Wuterich will serve jail time or not is ultimately up to the commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser. According to a Marine Corps statement, that decision will come “once he has fully reviewed the case.”

But the very terms of the plea bargain in a case in which two dozen civilians were killed suggests that ultimately, history will likely conclude that in the case of Haditha, the military justice system didn’t work, argues David Glazier, a professor of law at Loyola Law School Los Angeles and a former career US Navy officer.

“The justification for having a separate system of military justice is primarily to be able to maintain good order and discipline,” he says. “That requires prompt investigation and punishment of wrongdoing.”

It took six years to bring Haditha to trial.

“The first problem was failure in the chain of command to recognize that there was a potential crime,” Mr. Glazier says. The commander in charge of Wuterich’s unit “when he first heard the problem, refused to believe it. He said, ‘Not my Marines.’ ”

In other words, loyalty to the troops trumped loyalty to the constitution, and resulted in failure “to conduct a meaningful investigation immediately,” Glazier says.

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