Tuesday, June 06, 2006
More on Haditha
This story from the Hawaii Reporter provides lots of background and analysis on the Haditha incident. It's the kind of thing I was beginning to do on my own, but due to lack of talent and training, I would have finished my effort several months after any trial of the Marines involved had ended. The piece is a must-read if you want to understand the Haditha incident in context.
Having read the Time account of the incident, I have to say that I have misgivings about the veracity of the witnesses and the video on which it is based. The Time reporter(s) seem to take every statement by the Iraqis at face value and every statement by the US military with a block of salt, except, of course, the unnamed inculpatory sources within the US military establishment.
Once more, I call upon the lamestream media and the opportunistic politicians (not to mention the unauthorized leakers in the Pentagon and elsewhere) to back off until the Marines have been charged and tried in a court martial. Once more, I say that we as a society are much too quick to think the worst of our own troops. Once more, I remind you that the Marines are entitled to the same presumption of innocence as anyone else under our system of government.
Credit Roger L. Simon for the pointer.
UPDATE: The indispensable Michael Yon adds another dimension to the discussion, here.
