Actually, it did at a high-level. Murtha's major aim was to turn Americans against the war in Iraq. He succeeded, as measured by public opinion polls. But the anti-war movement failed. Haditha never became the rallying cry that Murtha hoped it would.
Also, no one is suggesting today that Rumsfeld and top Pentagon brass were in on a massive cover-up. And the media was suggesting that in the summer of 2006.
It wasn't the kind of "countering" I would have liked (see picture above), but that's Washington, I guess.
Rumsfeld's concern had nothing to do with the accused Marines and everything to do with "countering" Murtha's and the rats' anticipated claims that if these rampaging, cold-blooded, civilian-killing Marines were not convicted and sent to jail, then it must be because there was a (spit) "coverup".
And the best way to "counter" the possibility of those mean rats and the Code Pink left and their media allies (TIME, etc.) from making such an accusation was to do everything possible to make sure the Haditha Marines were convicted and jailed. To ensure that result, Rumsfeld supported the biggest, most expensive investigation in NCIS history, with the corrupt NCIS apparently given carte blanche to do whatever was necessary. To further attempt to fix the result, the prosecution was lavished with all the resources it could ever dream of while the accused Marines were limited to the services of one lone military defense lawyer.
I get it now....
Thanks a lot, Rummy. How'd that work out for you?
Good riddance to bad garbage.
And now I need to go throw up.