Posted on 05/30/2006 12:49:13 PM PDT by gondramB
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- It actually took me a while to put all the pieces together -- that I know these guys, the U.S. Marines at the heart of the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha.
I don't know why it didn't register with me until now. It was only after scrolling through the tapes that we shot in Haditha last fall, and I found footage of some of the officers that had been relieved of their command, that it hit me.
I know the Marines that were operating in western al Anbar, from Husayba all the way to Haditha. I went on countless operations in 2005 up and down the Euphrates River Valley. I was pinned on rooftops with them in Ubeydi for hours taking incoming fire, and I've seen them not fire a shot back because they did not have positive identification on a target.
I saw their horror when they thought that they finally had identified their target, fired a tank round that went through a wall and into a house filled with civilians. They then rushed to help the wounded -- remarkably no one was killed.
I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47....
How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't.
And I was with them in Haditha, a month before the alleged killings last November of some 24 Iraqi civilians.
I'm told that investigators now strongly suspect a rampage by a small number of Marines who snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb.
Haditha was full of IEDs
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
You're reaching.
More of the insanity in how we are fighting terrorists in Iraq. Our troops get pinned down by fire and are afraid to shoot back, lest the anti-American media pounce on them, or their own superiors court martial them. These pc constraints in the so-called "rules of engagement" are the main reason why this thing isn't over yet. The other side is fighting a vicious war, while our guys are forced to fight as 'gentlemen'. Who is the worst enemy of our troops, Mohammed, the media, or our own political leaders?
FYI Ping
Maybe I'm dense but I'm not getting that. She's asking the 'Can you believe it?' question to her colleagues but never gives her or their answers.
It seems like they would only ask 'Can you believe it?' if their own experiences with those Marines would make them question the allegations.
Didn't she know they were already convicted by Murtha.
The line from later in the story "After being hit by an IED, his men were searching the area and found a massive weapons cache in a mosque" is only more proof that our enemies take advantage of our sensitivity.
That's Murtha's angle: Something happened, let's assume the worst and blame Bush.
Like I said, with liberals, it's getting hard to tell.
We raise parakeets (not commercially....it's like guppies. It starts by accident) and my son was asking how to tell the males from the females before they are mature enough to display the differences. I told him it doesn't matter. Just put them all together and let them figure it out.
I guess that's the way liberals multiply.
The terrorists are "civilians" as are the "insurgents"
Everyone but uniformed security personnel are "civilians"
Here's one for the record book...a reporter..from CNN no less.- who has (hold on to your seats) favorable things to say about this unit of Marines.
More of the inanity from one of the resident keyboard kommandos.
God Bless our troops and keep them safe.
The FACT that company commanders were fired around this time does bode well for the Marines. You don't cover up a crime by FIRING people whose men committed crimes. It means you take action FIRST against those who are in charge and then start a thorough investigation.
I think this story is a big positive.
BTTT
This story starts off encouragingly enough, and then goes absolutely nowhere. I have no idea what her point is supposed to be.
So far this just an allegation.
EVEN IF ITS TRUE, the parties involved should be suitably punished and we should press on. Under no circumstances should we permit the leftists to turn something like this into another Mai Lai.
Wars are war and terrible things happen in war. You try to minimize them but they happen.
There was less journalistic horror at dead American soldiers and dead western hostages.
Yeah, it's just sort of 'I knew these guys'.
I wish she had said either, 'It doesn't fit with what I experienced' or 'I wasn't there, maybe someone did snap'.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.