Friday, June 02, 2006
Thoughts on Haditha
Why are we as a society so quick to assume the worst about our own troops?
At this moment, only those who were there know what actually happened at Haditha, and their memory of the events may be flawed or biased. (cf. Rashomon) I certainly don't know what happened, but others, e.g., most of the lamestream media, Rep. Murtha and the Kos Kids are absolutely certain that the atrocities were committed by the Marines. Why?
We know that the followers of Zarqawi are brutal murderers who have butchered innocent civilians regularly over the past several years. They have demonstrated that killing women and children in furtherance of their agenda bothers them not one whit. We also know that Zarqawi and his ilk are masters at manipulating the lamestream media (which, by the way, are more than willing to push any story that damages America). Ergo, it is certainly not beyond possibility that the whole thing is a frameup to damage the public perceptions of the Marines and the United States in general, and weaken American public support for the war. At this point, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, how do we know that those civilians who were killed at Haditha were not murdered by the "insurgents" who had attacked our Marines? Even if the victims were shot by American weapons, that is not proof that the Marines committed the crime, as al-Qaeda certainly has taken weapons from dead Americans over the past 3 years.
I say, let the investigation run its course before we condemn our brave Marines. If after full investigation and a court martial they are found guilty of committing war crimes, then they should be punished as severely as their deeds deserve. But until then, the troops are entitled to the same presumption of innocence that we all expect in our justice system, and the Rep. Murthas of the world should refrain from aiding and abetting the enemy by publicly and prematurely announcing their guilt.
UPDATE: WELCOME, INSTAPUNDIT READERS! I'm honored to get a link from The Professor. I hope you are not disappointed. Feel free to look around my humble blog and to come back often (well, weekly or so) if you like what you see.
At this moment, only those who were there know what actually happened at Haditha, and their memory of the events may be flawed or biased. (cf. Rashomon) I certainly don't know what happened, but others, e.g., most of the lamestream media, Rep. Murtha and the Kos Kids are absolutely certain that the atrocities were committed by the Marines. Why?
We know that the followers of Zarqawi are brutal murderers who have butchered innocent civilians regularly over the past several years. They have demonstrated that killing women and children in furtherance of their agenda bothers them not one whit. We also know that Zarqawi and his ilk are masters at manipulating the lamestream media (which, by the way, are more than willing to push any story that damages America). Ergo, it is certainly not beyond possibility that the whole thing is a frameup to damage the public perceptions of the Marines and the United States in general, and weaken American public support for the war. At this point, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, how do we know that those civilians who were killed at Haditha were not murdered by the "insurgents" who had attacked our Marines? Even if the victims were shot by American weapons, that is not proof that the Marines committed the crime, as al-Qaeda certainly has taken weapons from dead Americans over the past 3 years.
I say, let the investigation run its course before we condemn our brave Marines. If after full investigation and a court martial they are found guilty of committing war crimes, then they should be punished as severely as their deeds deserve. But until then, the troops are entitled to the same presumption of innocence that we all expect in our justice system, and the Rep. Murthas of the world should refrain from aiding and abetting the enemy by publicly and prematurely announcing their guilt.
UPDATE: WELCOME, INSTAPUNDIT READERS! I'm honored to get a link from The Professor. I hope you are not disappointed. Feel free to look around my humble blog and to come back often (well, weekly or so) if you like what you see.
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