Who’s The Enemy?
June 22, 2006
And I thought only Mike Nifong was dumb enough to rely on the testimony of a loony. After “an Iraqi journalism student gave an Iraqi human rights group a video he had taken in Haditha the day after the incident” all hell started breaking loose and twelve US Marines came under investigation.
Once again, those in command are too eager to believe that the grunt on the ground is the enemy. It’s understandable when this kind of crap rolls from the mouths of Amnesty International, the MSM and even some of those weenie traitors in Congress...but the military eating its own? Just surrender now.
On November 19th, 2005, in the Iraqi town of Haditha, members of Kilo Company of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment reported 24 Iraqis killed by a mixture of gunfire and a roadside bomb. On that same day, 24 dead Iraqis were found by a coalition body recovery team. At this point, nobody (other than the Marines of Kilo Company) is certain what happened and nobody is certain if the 24 reported killed by the Marines are the same 24 later recovered.
But a lack of facts has not deterred US (supposed) Rep. John P. Murtha (D-PA) from pronouncing the Marines guilty...” they killed innocent civilians in cold blood”. So much for a presumption of innocence.
And speaking of Nifong-like prosecution...” the allegations made public so far by the LA Times, and others, appear to unduly rely on a singular Marine, Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones who self-reports as suffering from the personal hell of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder and is currently under civilian indictment for crimes committed after he came home from Iraq. Briones appears to want to swap a squeal for a deal”.
Lets’s recap...According to the MSM, various Iraqi sources and Rep. John P. Murtha, 24 Iraqi civilians were wantonly massacred by members of Kilo Company in revenge for the killing of their comrade Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas (split in half by a roadside bomb). But, none of the 24 “innocent Iraqi civilians” were killed by that bomb...they were murdered by US Marines.
And, again according to Murtha, there was “no question" about a Haditha cover-up. That’s correct...Murtha was immediately certain that not only did US Marines murder civilians, but that they conspired to cover-up the alleged crime.
Pardon me for being skeptical, but...
Back in August of 2003, I wrote an article about the Bucca Four. To refresh a bit, “four military police from a Pennsylvania-based US army reserve unit are accused of punching, kicking and breaking bones of prisoners at Camp Bucca, the largest US-run PoW camp in Iraq”. In that article, I was also amazed at the heavy-handed manner in which brave troops were treated by their own government and asked “what’s with the U.S. military command? Are they playing PC to a crowd of Upper West Side dilettantes or just trying to appease a bunch of Iraqi primates?”
After suffering many indignities at the hands of their own government, three of the Bucca Four were cleared of all charges and received...well, I’ll let the email I received from one of the Bucca Four do the talking:
Daniel, I would first like to start by saying "Thank you" for writing this article. And second in case the news hasn't spread far and wide like in the beginning...Lisa, Timmy and I all...have received our Honorable Discharges and that was back in August 2005 down in D.C. after we appeared before the Army Discharge Review Board and the 5 Colonels who comprised the board ALL ruled in our favor. Again, thanks for supporting us!!!!
A single AP release announced their innocence. Every major MSM outlet in the world carried the initial condemnation of their alleged “crimes” and then...ignored their innocence.
I know that I’m not supposed to rant but the swiftness of the MSM and Rep. John P. Murtha to condemn our troops, accompanied by the willingness of the US government to act on these unsubstantiated condemnations, makes me sick.
It’s doubtful that anybody will ever know the true facts of Haditha. Evidence could have been manufactured and tampered with by anybody. Haditha is a hotbed of insurgency. Nobody can differentiate between the innocent and the guilty. Just ask Pfc. Kristian Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker who were recently taken prisoner outside of Baghdad and then “killed in a barbaric way.
As even the NYT’s reports, Menchaca’s and Tucker’s bodies were so brutally traumatized by the barbaric insurgents that “they could not be positively identified”...”The torture was something unnatural”. And then, in the Islamic spirit, the insurgents planted “numerous bombs along the road leading to the bodies, and around the bodies themselves”. Where is Murtha’s all-knowing condemnation of this?
The only fact anybody needs to know is whether or not the Marines acted within their rules of engagement. The Washington Post reported that “Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq...said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings...several civilians were killed...when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house.”
Maybe Sgt. Wuterich’s version should at least share equal weight with the statements of Iraqi insurgents before the MSM gives instant credibility to the likes of Murtha’s big mouth.
Maybe the US government should think about asking brave troops to die in a “war” (aka police action) and then treating them as if they were the real enemy.
Maybe the US government should try treating its troops with the same level of cultural sensitivity and dignity with which it insists on treating our “peace loving Muslim” terrorists.
And, by the way, Major General Eldon Bargewell who headed-up the investigation of whether Marines covered up the Haditha killings completed his report, finding no evidence of a "knowing cover-up".
There has been no comment from John Murtha concerning the state of his verbal diarrhea.
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