Posted on 05/11/2007 10:04:55 AM PDT by RedRover
The U.S. military took the extraordinary step of apologizing for the deadly shooting in Afghanistan earlier this year by Marines that left 19 civilians dead and another 50 wounded. One senior official who has seen the results of the preliminary investigation into the incident says it was "as bad as Haditha," a reference to the 2005 shooting deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians that resulted in three Marines being charged with murder.
Like Haditha, the incident was triggered by an explosion targeting a Marine convoy. Witnesses allege the Marines then fired upon civilians gathered at a roadside bazaar and continued to fire on vehicles on the road for an additional 10 miles. According to the senior official, "The Marines were out of control."
The investigation into the shootings continues. A dozen investigators from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are in Afghanistan interviewing more than 100 witnesses as they try to determine the day's events.
The investigators have not been given access to the victims' bodies but are working on obtaining permission for autopsies to be performed.
Seven Marines involved in the incident have been returned to their home base at Camp Lejeune as the investigation proceeds.
Col. John Nicholson told Pentagon reporters Tuesday that he had apologized for the shootings for what he termed "a terrible, terrible mistake" that "is a stain on our honor and on the memory of the many Americans who have died defending Afghanistan and the Afghan people."
Nicholson also announced that victims families had been given solace payments, as much as $2,000 for the families of those killed in the incident.
The military still doesn't have a good handle on how many of the civilians were killed by the initial blast and the subsequent Marine fire. Either way, a military official says the decision was made not to differentiate and provide the payments to all the victims' families.
Yeah as if the media/Murtha version is now an undisputable fact and Haditha is synonymous with massacre. I hate the media.
Col. John Nicholson, YOU are a stain on the American people.
murtha! murtha! is that you murtha, or is it just one of your fink cronies in the DOD?
Political expediency demands more Marines in prison, by any means possible.
This was predicted by many early on in this war. The enemy would set up human shield situations for propaganda purposes and the general pop would be sucked into falling for it by an enemy sympathizing MSM.
This will become much much more common in practice by our enemy.
We dont have it in us to win the long fight in this war. It’s not about the usual “lack of endurance” that the inbreeds often tout. It’s a predictable outcome from allowing treason to become so ubiquitous that no one can even muster the courage to call it what it is anymore. No society in history has ever survived such.
“Fink cronies” is right. By comparison, even liberal mayors tread very carefully when there is an incident with police. But there are “senior defense officials” who see servicemen as nothing but pawns. And with no outcry, and no media interest, there’s nothing to rein them in.
Agreed. And I hate the media toe-suckers in the DoD who give them their headlines.
It is a friggin disgrace.
He's long stated that Congress has no business micro managing the war, and that he won't second guess the generals in charge either. He has had the same hands off approach with every aspect of his administration since his 1st term.
He's tried to run the country more like a corporation than a monarchy - he feels it's more productive to hire qualified people and give them room to run their departments, and let the department heads decide when to fire under performers.
Normally, this is the best way to go, as there's no better way to stir up dissension, not to mention time consuming distractions by a media that would love to run some hit pieces portraying Bush as a dictator, and then there'd be the investigations - firing 8 POS US attorneys is a good example.
The problem here, is we have institutionalized political activists in every corner of the government trying to take down both Bush and anyone else they can in an effort to lose this war for purely political gain.
When we have elements of the DOD, congress, military brass, and the media working in collusion and almost daily breaking federal secrecy laws with impunity, the President has an awful lot to be concerned about, starting with who can he trust to accomplish anything anymore.
It's the exact same enemies within that are attacking our Marines, that are attacking our President.
I feel that they are lying in wait for Bush to get involved in either these proceedings, or pardon the border agents Ramon & Campos before their appeal comes up, so they can scream to the world that the US is a Totalitarian state run by a blood thirsty dictator, and use that platform as a launch pad to have our sovereignty handed to the UN on a platter.
Sound crazy? Mebbe it is, but it's the only thing that would explain the vast lengths they are going to in destroying the reputation of the country that they and we live in.
There are rules and laws set that govern such things. The Pres has no more legal power to do as you say than I or anyone else does.
Once this crap starts rolling, it has to run its course. The problem only exists in that we have an MSM that is actively engaged in supporting the enemy, an officer corps that has been raised in full knowledge of that enemy support from the MSM and is scared to death of that.
This is because, so many of our own civilians are so degenerate that they can not think past the end of their gonads nor any deeper than the bottom of their own bellies and as such morons, they tend to fall for each and every single propaganda ploy of our enemy and their supporters, no matter how stupid, weak or nonsensical that propaganda is.
Most of our current officer corps in all our branches that have managed to make it to Lt Col or higher know full well that our own civilian idiots are every bit as dangerous to their lives and freedom as are the trigger pullers they face in the field of battle.
Treason has become so trendy that damn few have the courage to stand up and call it what it is anymore.
Thats the first thing I noticed too..
The problem is that an Army general was commanding a bunch of Marines, and I believe there is some rivalry going on here. The Marines are new to Special Operations, in fact, I think this was their first or second assignment. By the statements I’ve read from this general, he sounds resentful of Marines being in SpecOps, and I believe was only too glad to send them packing. My son is in this unit of Marines, but thankfully, I found out he’s not one of the ones under investigation. He’s not allowed to talk about it, but from what I’m reading, the whole incident doesn’t make sense. So-called witnesses said the Marines were firing indiscriminately for 10 miles. That doesn’t sound right. That’s a long way to travel while shooting at no particular targets. These guys are too well-trained to do something like that. I hope these guys aren’t being thrown overboard to save some bigwig’s hide.
Your instincts are correct, except that Marine units have been involved in many, many “special operations” over the years. For example, in Afghanistan the Marines had tracked bin Laden and had him in their sites when a few Army officers cried like spoiled toddlers that their Special Forces weren’t getting to do enough cool stuff like the Marines.
Scuttlebutt has it that several Army commanders actually threatened to resign over this perceived sleight, so the bin Laden operation was subsequently handed over to Army Special Forces who prompty lost him.
Ask your son about “Operation Anaconda”. Maybe he knows something about that.
Regards,
LH
Thanks, I will, as soon as he comes home.
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