[photodawg]

Do you seriously believe that Marines picked out innocent people to massacre in a town that was a hotbed of terrorist activity that even required bombing from above?

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

In a land where 12 year olds strap bombs to their body to blow up innocent civilians ,and die for allah I refuse to believe the "innocent women and children" mantra. The press is more sympathetic to the "insurgents" and radical islam than to the USMC.

Those who died in the aftermath of this clash did so with just cause as part of a battle. What bothers me greatly is the right wing blogosphere's condemnation and conviction of these marines based on "leaked" information from the investigation. Another disgusting aspect of this "investigation" is the marine and U.S. Gov't actions of non support for these soldiers. The military is very capable of making these marines a scapegoat at a low level of command operation, to deflect criticism from marine command and government higher up[s. In other words, they are willing to cut their losses at portraying this as some stressed out rogue marines overreacting than they would want the corps to stand up and say, "war is hell" and this is an enemy we are fighting and our troops will shoot first when necessary to defeat the enemy.

This whole response absolutely sucks and further illustrates the folly of fighting a politically correct war in order to win the public relations "battle". Its why the enemy laughs at us and has no respect or fear of America's military.

[Dave S]

The military is very capable of making these marines a scapegoat at a low level of command operation, to deflect criticism from marine command and government higher up[s. In other words, they are willing to cut their losses at portraying this as some stressed out rogue marines overreacting than they would want the corps to stand up and say, "war is hell" and this is an enemy we are fighting and our troops will shoot first when necessary to defeat the enemy.

So far the only three marines that I've heard of that have been named or punished in any way in regards to this incident are Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani who was in command of the 3rd Battalion and two of his company commanders who were relieved of their commands, as well. Authorities said a series of unspecified incidents had led to a loss of confidence in the three.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

You have said it so well!

Dresden and Hiroshima were not 'politically correct".
Neither was 9-11!

[trek]

Another brilliant post.

We are doomed to fail in Iraq as long as our troops have to fight the enemy, a seditious press, contemptuous politicians, self serving career officers and an apathetic public. I can guarantee you WWII was much more vicious than the war in Iraq. The only difference between WWII and the present conflict is that our troops in WWII only had to fight the enemy.

[Patriot from Philly]

Actually, the military is pretty good about not sacrificing its soldiers. The only ones I thought they came close to doing that to were the 2 guys in Korea that they court martialed after that accident killed two girls. The investigation showed there was no carelessness, yet they court martialed them to appease the SK public and it didn't work.

Also, the 2 airmen that killed the Canadians and the Marine from New York.

The US has protected US troops from charges for friendly fire incidents with Italy and Spain when the expedient thing may have been to court martial.