The alleged massacre of men, women, and children at a bung-hole named Haditha is much in the news lately. The incident, whatever took place, occurred last November. The principal evidence appears to be “eyewitness” testimony of Iraqis, as reported in this WaPo story.
It is not known to what extent, if any, the story of notoriously unreliable and hostile Arabs can be verified. But that doesn’t stop those who think that American Marines should be presumed to have violated their honor by killing innocents. Among those are the usual suspects, now including a former Marine who has become a severe critic of the war: John Murtha. Mr. Murtha now, apparently, in his zeal to tar the administration’s Iraq performance, accepts that Marines are no different than terrorists.
In an AP story today, the deaths of the civilians are being presented as facts, not as questionable events needing verification. The lead paragraph states “The fallout from the killing of as many as two dozen Iraqi civilians by Marines could undermine U.S. efforts in Iraq.” Not “alleged killing.” Just “killing.”
Cop-killers caught dead to rights in the U.S. are still afforded the dignity of “alleged,” at least until they are convicted in a court of law. The decent thing for us all to do is not rush to judgment until some real facts are revealed, from credible sources.
As to what might have happened, one can only guess. But, since “Haditha, a city in the Anbar province of western Iraq…has been plagued by insurgents” a very good guess is that terrorists are embedded amongst the general population. Which makes it awfully difficult to tell friend from foe.
If our Marines did kill innocents, and there wasn’t some urgent need to kill terrorists about to kill them, then let the facts come out and let those guilty face justice.
Until that time, let’s see if we can’t get bloviating fools like John Murtha to shut up and stop tarring our fighting men with unproven allegations. Hey, even scumwad Democratic congressmen like William Jefferson deserve their day in court. It’s the least we can provide for our men in harm’s way.
self evident truths 