Marines Charged in Haditha Murders Found Innocent

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

In November of 2005, there was an IED explosion in Haditha that killed one Marine and a number of civilians. Immediately after the explosion there was a firefight between Marines and armed terrorists. In the firefight eight terrorists were killed.

Those are the facts, but not the end of the story.

In March of 2006, Time magazine ran a story, “Collateral Damage or Civilian Massacre in Haditha?” which claimed, based on interviews with locals, that the Marines had killed 24 civilians in cold blood in retaliation for the one Marine's death. In May, the Marine Corps charged a number of Marines from that company with killing the civilians, and a number of officers for covering up the alleged killings.

Now I might expect something like that from a magazine like Time that is consistently anti-American and anti-war, but it didn't stop there. None other than a member of the United States House of Representatives, John Murtha, Democrat from Pennsylvania, claimed that “there was no firefight, there was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” This incident, said Murtha, “shows the tremendous pressure that these guys are under every day when they’re out in combat.”

Murtha also charged that there was a cover up. OnThis Week on ABC he said “Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long? We don’t know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command.”

Well, as of now, every charge against the Marines who were present at Haditha have either been dropped for lack of evidence, or the one case that went to trial has been found innocent. There is still one case waiting to go to trial, but it too should have the same result.

And in light of this, has Representative Murtha offered an type of apology for his outrageous remarks?

NO, THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING!

[EKYhunter]

Glad to hear it for the marines. Seems like we never hear anything out of these politicians after they have been proved totally wrong or their idiotic statements have been found to be total hogwash!

[wtnhunt]

Murtha will never apologize or admit he was wrong. Very sad for our soldiers to be subject to the slams like this from Murtha or anyone. While I appreciate and respect that Murtha served our country in Vietnam, I think his comments and continued lack of support for our troops show him to be exactly what he is. Here is a kind of interesting link on "booting" Murtha http://www.bootmurtha.com/.

[Gator]

Glad to see them exonarated. Murtha needs to just go away IMO!!

[oldksnarc]

While I appreciate and respect that Murtha served our country in Vietnam, I think his comments and continued lack of support for our troops show him to be exactly what he is.

Shades of Kerry-ism. I, too, respect his prior service but despise him for his current attacks on our troops.

[stevebeilgard]

Shades of Kerry-ism. I, too, respect his prior service but despise him for his current attacks on our troops.

good point, and me too. he's now a political hack, and has thrown our troops under the bus. i think he'll be voted out of office next time he's up to bat.... yeaaaa..