On a Marine Base, Disbelief Over Charges

New York Times ^ | May 29, 2006 | Carolyn Marshall

[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

[Peach]

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.

[Peach]

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.

[CedarDave]

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.

Worth repeating and remembering. Often we need the obvious pointed out to us.
Thanks Peach.

[Coop]

Laura Ingraham saying her sources in the Pentagon say it's bad. I think some Freepers are putting their heads in the sand, rather than realizing that what makes us GREAT is that when such atrocities occur with our fighting forces, WE identify it, WE prosecute it, WE try it, and WE address it.

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.

[Peach]

Changing tagline. It's stolen from another freeper whose name I don't remember.

[Coop]

Thanks for the ping. :)

[ClaireSolt]

It always irks me that the media are not satisfied with reporting what is or has happene. They want to predict the future. They are like kids in the back of a car going "Are we there yet?"

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.

[Coop]

Harley Lady. :-)

[processing please hold]

I think I'll change my tag line too.

All Freepers should let this be their tag line.

[processing please hold]

That was her quote, wasn't it?

[CedarDave]

I wonder if associates of the CBS crew killed and wounded are angry with those who committed the act, or angry with the President and Rumfeld for directiong the troops into Iraq?

Never mind, I know the answer.

[Peach]

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.

[David Allen]

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.

[Peach]

Thank you for supporting our beloved military.

[Peach]

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.

[wtc911]

I think you are both right. A number of freepers are taking the innocent until proven guilty - wait and see attitude (which is the correct one in all criminal cases).

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.

[Arrowhead1952]

Here it is on this thread.

---

What's the price of Iraqi lives?--US military is behaving more like Barbarian hordes

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1636616/posts?page=6#6

[roses of sharon]

Some Freepers are sniveling water-boys for the MSM.

Most support these Marines no matter what.

[r9etb]

I think what most freepers are doing is saying that those Marines are innocent until proven guilty.

There are some, however, who are in essence saying that it wouldn't be that big a deal even if they were guilty.

[Peach]

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.