Correction

Yesterday, I was pretty hard on the marines for their apparent reluctance to undertake a serious investigation of the Hadith incident. In one respect, though, I appear to have either been misled by or misinterpreted the Time report on which I was relying. Time reported that the initial investigation, conducted by an unnamed colonel, had concluded that "Marines, not a bomb, killed the civilians but that the deaths were the result of 'collateral damage.' " I interpreted this to mean that the initial investigation had itself been an effort to sweep the incident under the "collateral damage" rug.

A more detailed report on the early investigation appeared in the New York Times today, and it places the investigators in a considerably better light. True, nothing at all happened until Time confronted the marines with videotape, but my inference that the investigation began with what the Nixon boy's once called "a modified, limited hangout" was probably unjustified.

The colonel who conducted the prelimianry investigation, Col. Greogory Watt, was primarily concerned with evaluating the original claim that the civilians had been killed by a bomb. He concluded that they had not been and had instead been shot by marines. According th the Times, his investigation "also raised questions about whether the marines followed established rules for identifying hostile threats when they assaulted houses near the site of a bomb attack, which killed a fellow marine. "

Col. Watt then reported his findingings to Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the senior ground commander in Iraq.

[The findings] raised enough questions about the marines' veracity that General Chiarelli referred the matter to the senior Marine commander in Iraq, who ordered a criminal investigation that officials say could result in murder charges being brought against members of the unit.

Colonel Watt's findings also prompted General Chiarelli to order a parallel investigation into whether senior Marine officers and enlisted personnel had attempted to cover up what happened.

Perhaps they should not have waited until being confronted by the media, but once the investigation started, it is hard to find fault with it.

I am sometimes glad to have my inferences rebutted.