Haditha

[docbyers]

Put Away the Broad Brushes
by David Limbaugh

Where are O.J. Simpson's and Bill Clinton's defenders to complain about the "rush to judgment" concerning the alleged Marine atrocities in Haditha? Why are their sympathies free flowing for criminal defendants, but nowhere to be seen when military personnel are accused of wrongdoing?

What has been reported about the Haditha tragedy is that a terrorist improvised explosive device (IED) blew a Marine in half, literally, and wounded several others. Afterward, our soldiers responded to the attack, killing 24 men, women and children.

We don't know for sure yet if the killings were indiscriminate or even if those killed were victims, as opposed to being armed, hostile and threatening to our soldiers.

We do have reports that Haditha is a terrorist hotbed -- referred to by some as a miniature Taliban-like state -- in which the terrorists rule with an iron fist and perform daily executions of those not sufficiently obedient to their rule, or Sharia law, or who knows what else. We are told that Haditha citizens live in fear and may prefer to cooperate with the terrorists purely for self-preservation.

Reportedly, a preliminary military inquiry found evidence that the attacks were unprovoked and that earlier statements by certain Marines that the civilians were killed by a roadside bomb rather than gunfire have been discredited.

Admittedly, the allegations are highly troubling, as is the initial finding that some Marines may have made false statements in their initial reports. But we must remember that at this point, they are just allegations.

While much of this seems damning, there are anomalies in the reports that point toward mitigation of the Marines' conduct. There is evidence, not yet conclusive, that Marines received small arms fire from the houses nearby and returned it. Sometime thereafter, the Marines rushed the houses and killed those inside. Previous media reports on Haditha have told of civilian complicity in attacks against U.S. and Iraqi soldiers. A 12-year-old survivor admitted that she knew in advance of the plot to ambush the Marine convoy with an IED detonation. If she knew, how likely is it that her parents, other family members and neighbors were unaware of the plan?

Let me be clear. If our soldiers killed unarmed, non-hostile, innocent bystander-type civilians, even if in a rage over the murder of their colleague, they deserve to be punished in accordance with the Uniform Code of Military Justice. No nation holds its soldiers to higher account than the United States and that will certainly be true in this case.

But unlike some others, I prefer to operate with a presumption that it is unlikely, but far from impossible, that our troops would behave that way. While an enraged group mentality could have overcome them, it is hard to see how the indiscriminate slaughter of wholly innocent noncombatants would quench any thirst they may have had for revenge.

We must be wary of those who insist they support the troops yet are eager to believe the worst about them before we have even heard their side of the story.

We must be especially resistant to efforts to extrapolate from this isolated incident the conclusion that a climate conducive to atrocities permeates the entirety of our fighting forces, as happened with Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. The overwhelming majority of our soldiers are honorable, decent and good people who would not and do not participate in such behavior. They are also engaged in a noble and necessary mission, though the longer the war lasts, the more that fact becomes obscured.

The anti-war left has already tried and convicted the accused soldiers. The media have called it a war crime, a massacre and an intentional act to send a message to Iraqis. How they know these things is impossible to divine.

Congressman John Murtha (D.-Pa.), who is apparently entitled to make any outrageous statement against the war with impunity because of his military record, is somehow sure -- without the benefit of admissions from alleged perpetrators, and certainly not a trial -- that the incident was "much worse than reported in Time magazine. ... Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

Murtha conveniently expressed his findings in his May 17 press conference, in which, for the umpteenth time, he called for the United States to withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Other anti-war politicians and activists will throw circumspection to the wind and exploit this tragedy, perhaps not out of genuine humanitarian concerns, but to discredit the war. It would be nice to believe otherwise, but their track record of accentuating and exaggerating events to smear the entire U.S. military and its mission is consistent, long and reprehensible.

No matter how this turns out, let's remember the true character of the overwhelming majority of our soldiers.

[docbyers]

What Haditha Portends
by Patrick J. Buchanan

About Haditha, Americans today agree on but one thing.

If Marines did shoot and kill women and children, either in rage or reprisal after the killing of one of their own, and if this alleged atrocity was covered up, those responsible must be punished. That such things happen in every war, even "the Good War," does not excuse them.

But if we are agreed upon that, Haditha, nevertheless -- and again assuming the charges are true -- is going to wound this country deeply and divide us bitterly. For two cultures are heading for a collision.

The first is the culture of the Marine Corps, hierarchical and familial. Marines are an extended family. They believe in loyalty up and loyalty down. Their tradition is not only to retrieve their wounded, but retrieve their dead.

They are as proud of the retreat from Chosin Reservoir to the sea, when surrounded by Chinese troops in 1950, as they are of the victories of Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. Legendarily, they take care of their own. In a fight, they stand by their own. And a fight for the reputation of the Corps, unlike any in its history, may be coming. And, if it is, Middle America will be on the side of the Marines.

The culture of the dominant liberal media, however, is different. It has been so since Watergate. To the big media, the whistle-blower -- the individual who exposes for the press the sins or scandals of church or state, politics or government -- is the real moral hero to be cherished and celebrated.

In 2006, one Pulitzer Prize went to The Washington Post for revealing that NATO allies were secretly allowing the CIA to bring terror suspects into their countries for interrogation. Another went to The New York Times for exposing the super-secret program of the National Security Agency to monitor U.S. overseas calls to and from individuals under suspicion of terrorist connections.

To advance "the people's right to know" of official misconduct, the media claim rights denied to other citizens: the right not to have to testify to grand juries about sources, the right not to have their notes inspected even by prosecutors with warrants. They are the high priests of the secular society.

In the Nixon era, the media celebrated their own for their roles in scandals that were considered media triumphs: the exposure of My Lai, publication of the secret Pentagon Papers, the Watergate scandal that brought down the president. Journalists reveled in exposing past excesses of the FBI and the CIA. Both institutions were demoralized and damaged not simply by the revelations, but by the extended and hostile publicity.

The media response to such charges is that they were simply the messengers doing their duty in bringing the bad news to the people and the responsible authorities, so reforms could be made.

But if that were all the media were doing, their reputation would not be as low as the Marine Corps' is high. Why are the major media distrusted, even despised by so many Americans in whose name they profess to act?

The truth is the public does not believe the protestations of the press about the nobility of its motives. To many in Red-State America, the media do not just expose wrongdoing. They revel in it, rejoice in it, profit from it, as it enables them to preen as morally superior to those hapless souls whose sins or scandals they have uncovered. Invariably, the media seem not to seek to minimize, but to maximize the damage done to the institutions and the individuals whose failings or crimes they have revealed.

Listening to the breathless reports of Haditha, noting the glee and excitement in the voices of some correspondents, anchors and talking heads, one senses anticipation about what is to come.

But if the media are seen as exploiting Haditha -- again, assuming the allegations of a war crime prove true -- to undermine the war effort or the soldiers and Marines fighting, or damage President Bush or his secretary of defense, there will be a savage backlash. Any goodwill won by embedding reporters with troops on the drive to Baghdad will be wiped out, and the old Vietnam wounds, never healed, will reopen.

For any trial of Marines that could go on for months would not only damage the reputation of the Corps, but also serve as a propaganda bonanza for our enemies.

Given the proliferating allegations of war crimes committed by U.S. soldiers and Marines, the accusations by the elected leaders of Iraq and Afghanistan that our troops are callous in their treatment of civilians, the patience of the American people with these war commitments is certain to dissipate.

But if we walk away and the governments in either or both of these countries collapse, there will be a long, dark night of recriminations here unlike any we have seen in our lifetimes.

"Woe to the world because of scandals!" the Lord says in Matthew 18:7. "For it must needs be that scandals come, but woe to the man through whom scandal does come!"

Sound counsel to the media today.

[flew-da-coup]

I'm sure the people that were killed loved the Marines, NOT. Give them boys a medal.

[clacoste]

This story is getting a lot of press around the world.  Much more than this week's car bombings, suicide belts, head sawings, etc..etc...etc...

Not to mention church burnings, systemic persecution...etc...etc...etc...in a wide arc from Nigeria to the eastern shores of Indonesia...

Not saying the press is biased....

[flew-da-coup]

The media loves to bash the U.S.

[bradley563]

repeat after me..................................."The media is our friend.................they promote world piece and tranquility................"

[flew-da-coup]

Bradley has been drinking the kool-aid.

[bradley563]

No, I only drink the anti-freeze

[flew-da-coup]

yep, that will do it too.