Posted on 05/30/2006 6:00:23 AM PDT by Peach
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., May 29 — In this "company town" where everything and everyone caters to the well-being of the Marine Corps, there is no shortage of people, both military and civilian, who are willing to give the benefit of the doubt to the troops accused of unjustified killings last November in Haditha, Iraq.
Relatives and neighbors gathered near the shrouded bodies of civilians said to have been killed by marines in Haditha, Iraq, in November.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/30/world/middleeast/30voices.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Nice start to the article. Funny how they never start a column defending libs with "At this "company rag" where everything and everyone caters to Dem causes....."
Remember the famous "wedding massacre" incident from the recent past? I have a feeling this story is just like it. Utterly false.
And no shortage of freepers that think the MSM and the leakers have it right, unfortunately.
Benefit of the doubt???
The NY Times seems to be bothered that people would give our Marines the BOTD. What should we do according to them, assume they are guilty.
The Slimes makes me want to puke.
A year ago I was charged with two counts of premeditated murder and with other war crimes related to my service in Iraq. My wife and mother sat in a Camp Lejeune courtroom for five days while prosecutors painted me as a monster; then autopsy evidence blew their case out of the water, and the Marine Corps dropped all charges against me ["Marine Officer Cleared in Killing of Two Iraqis," news story, May 27, 2005].
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/27/AR2006052700846.html
"In the heat of combat, you cannot hesitate; he who hesitates is lost," he said. "I would not prosecute these young men because they were just doing their jobs."
But conversation quickly returns to emotional and earnest explanations of the need for understanding for what one former marine described as "these 19-year-old kids who get paid 900 bucks a month to put their lives on the line."
I don't see the N. Koreans or al-Qaeda interested in trying anyone for atrocities they commit.
I'm very familiar with his story, and I'm very familiar with how the MSM operates. They are doing their Murtha best to spread the propaganda. Disgusting.
Funny, you don't see this much exposure over terrorists killing people in Iraq. It's only newsworthy when we are suspected of doing it.
Another point of view:)
TG you were cleared, what a horrible experience to endure.
It's truly nauseating that so many jump to believe the worst about our military. Thank God I'll never understand or relate to people like that. Incredible....
Me too, only I want to puke on the writer, her editor, and the owners of the paper. I don't usually even read their kind of anti-American, anti-military crap, it makes my blood boil over and my cardiologists have warned me about that sort of thing.
Sir, Thank You for your service to our country!
This is very true and I have no problems with the prosecution of memebers of the military who are guilty of crimes. Of course the sources say it looks bad. At this point, I don't think they have much more detailed information than is already known. On the surface, it doesn't bode well. I'm anxious to see what transpires. Problem is...we'll never get any solid info on the incident without rancor from either side.
I linked the Marine's letter in the Washington Post; those weren't my words but his. He took Murtha to the woodshed.
I want the Old Media held accountable for the libelist intentions that are so obvious with the reporting of such incidents. Wishful thinking on their part does not give them the right to character assasination and they should be liable to the tune of several hundred thousand.
You know what kills me about the media and leftists?
When a civilian is found guilty of murder and given the death penalty, the leftists come out in droves to defend the murderer. Not the victim(s).
But let the military, MAYBE get carried away in the heat of the moment, and the media and left have soldiers and Marines found already guilty, even without a trial.
The double standard is shocking.
I think what most freepers are doing is saying that those Marines are innocent until proven guilty.
We've all seen this playbook before and they wouldn't be the first Marines charged with premeditated murder in Iraq only to be found innocent.
This Marine was charged with premeditated murder and other war crimes in Iraq and was found innocent of the charges:
Members of the U.S. military serving in Iraq need more than Mr. Murtha's pseudo-sympathy. They need leaders to stand with them even in the hardest of times. Let the courts decide if these Marines are guilty. They haven't even been charged with a crime yet, so it is premature to presume their guilt -- unless that presumption is tied to a political motive.
ILARIO PANTANO
Jacksonville, N.C.
The writer served as a Marine enlisted man in the Persian Gulf War and most recently as a platoon commander in Iraq.
Worth repeating and remembering. Often we need the obvious pointed out to us.
Thanks Peach.
Putting their heads in the sand why? Because we won't pronounce guilt before the learning the facts? Hand me a shovel, and I'll put the rest of my body in there as well.
Changing tagline. It's stolen from another freeper whose name I don't remember.
Thanks for the ping. :)
The other day in the Blair news conferance president Bush said, "we've suffered a lot over Abu Gharib. Ann Compton summarized saying that he had said. "We are going to suffer a lot." No respecter of tense, she.
Harley Lady. :-)
All Freepers should let this be their tag line.
That was her quote, wasn't it?
Thank you for my new tagline, HarleyLady.
I am sick to DEATH of the left who defend civilian murderers from the death penalty. These civilian murderers can be mass murderers who committed the most heinous crimes, but the left will defend them, every time.
But let a military man MAYBE commit a crime of a similar nature, and without benefit of a trial, the left have them convicted and hung already.
We don't know yet what really happened.
It might not satisfy most, but the guilt they will bear for this action, if it occurred, will be punishment enough.
Thank you for supporting our beloved military.
I can't remember, in my lifetime, the left being angry with the RIGHT people. The left have stood with every tinpot dictator the world ever produced. And they have condemned every Republican president who has tried to free people from a life of tyranny and fear.
But there are also those who do have their heads in the sand and deny that there is even any remote possibility of there being any truth to the story, in spite of the Corps own investigation.
Some freepers (not you P) are attacking those who allow for the possibility of there being something here as being trolls or tools of the left. This accomplishes nothing and is childish.
There is only one truth about this, and that truth will be revealed eventually. We will all have to live with whatever it is.
Here it is on this thread.
There are some, however, who are in essence saying that it wouldn't be that big a deal even if they were guilty.
Oh, I read that woman and found her a disgusting excuse for a human being.
Without even being charged or having a trial, she has the Marines ready to be hung.
But I'll bet she'd defend a civilian mass murderer in this country from the death penalty.
No need to thank me, Peach. It is my honor to support our military. I always have, and always will. God bless them for standing watch as my family and myself sleep well under the blanket they provide.
Whew! I've known and watched your behavior enough here on FR to be almost certain that was the case -- but the comment caused even me to "do a doubletake"...long enough to go back and re-read what you wrote.
Nex time, please use italics or "quotation marks" (or both, as I did above) when quoting/citing another. You almost caused a few heart attacks! LOL!!
And there are some who are saying "They're guilty, because Murtha and some sources say so."
I doubt that freepers think it wouldn't be a big deal, per se. But rather, mistakes happen in war. Men who are being shot at and watching their buddies get killed sometimes over-react.
My husband has been sick and we spent two days watcing old war (mostly WWII) movies on television. There are numerous incidents of over-reacting in every war ever fought. This war has had fewer of those incidents than any other in the history of warfare.
Even if these men over-reacted, I'll be pleased to see them taken off the battlefield, but do I want them to pay for a mistake for the rest of their lives? Absolutely not.
Murderers in this country receive more of the benefit of a doubt than these Marines are getting and I'm sick of it.
LOL. I'm so sorry, TxnMA; I should have posted that better.
BTW, what the heck is a person from Texas doing in Massachusetts? You must feel like you've landed in lala land.
It is the soldier, not the reporter, Who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, Who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, Who has given us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier, Who salutes the flag, Who serves beneath the flag, And whose coffin is draped by the flag, Who allows the protester to burn the flag. --Admiral Jeremiah Denton
Anti-American and anti-military jumped on this specifically because it WAS Memorial Day. Much like atheist slam Jesus at Christmas time.
I don't see the N. Koreans or al-Qaeda interested in trying anyone for atrocities they commit.
Professor, did GI's in the big one take their Brownies with them and sell the photographs to LOOK?
This story is walking BS.
Even if every bit of it is true, the onus is on the insurgent and radical Baathist to not get in a fire-fight in the presence of their families. It's a no brainer, they shouldn't try to prove Darwin's theory in battle.
Add one more: WE play right into the hands of those that wish to destroy our nation.
Every time I read that it gives me the chills. It's so beautiful and so true.
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