No, not the Marines who may have killed innocent civilians at Haditha. Our military will take care of this problem. We will investigate and punish any who are guilty of murder or a cover-up under our laws and in accordance with our values. Such crimes cannot be tolerated and we will not tolerate it. General Pace makes that clear enough. We and 99.9% of the Marines are shamed by such actions; and in contrast to our enemies, we won't be using film of the crime to recruit more Marines.
No, I'm referring to the Honorable John Murtha, who can't seem to wait to make a crime of a few a logical result of fighting the war, and thus turn it into a disaster for our war in Iraq:
"Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?" Murtha said Sunday on "This Week" on ABC. "We don't know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command."
Representative Murtha believes, it seems, that this isolated crime (if the investigation shows that a crime took place, as it seems now) is just a common result of the war, with guilt all the way to the top. Murtha's enthusiasm for stoking anger over this alleged crime is disgusting. Could he possibly hide his glee a little better, stay off of television, and let our military justice system run its course?
I once believed there is no such person as an ex-Marine. I was wrong.
UPDATE: This post seems pretty clear, to me. It is even brief. I wrote that I think we must expect our troops to fight honorably and must punish any who don't. I contrasted our expectations with that of our enemies who delight in atrocities. Further, it seemed wrong for a Marine to attack Marines with such a broad brush when almost all fight with skill and honor in our defense even as we speak. And I expressed my view that Rep. Murtha should not act so bloody happy that his accusation seems to be right. Not did I insult the congressman with language. I think one could understand this if you read it even while busy making hand puppets.
So I was amused and disheartened to read this comment at some Atrios-related site about this post:
How are wingnut blogs dealing with the fact that it looks like Murtha was right about Haditha? Are they apologizing to him? Admitting they were wrong? Of course not! If this war ends badly, goes the wingnut meme, it will be because America-haters like Murtha stabbed us in the back.
Huh?
Where did I say this was a cause for losing? I think we are winning so I am not looking for excuses. And I never even commented on Haditha to the best of my knowledge. I did not attack Murtha for the accusation. Atrocities happen. Even in World War II--the good war. Our conduct in this war has been pretty damn good. Yet crimes will happen and I was content to let our people investigate, confident that we would do the right thing. That makes me a "wingnut." How nice.
And we will do the right thing. That's why we are better than our enemies who routinely kill innocents and boast of it.
Funny who the Left insists must apologize and who they "understand."
UPDATE: In an effort to improve the level of understanding on the Haditha issue for new visitors here, I suggest this article and this one.
