A reporter's shock at the Haditha allegation (Was embedded with Marines - different perspective)

CNN ^ | Tuesday, May 30, 2006; Posted: 1:57 p.m | Arwa Damon

[em2vn]

You're reaching.

[TheCrusader]

"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."

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?

[Mo1]

FYI Ping

[siunevada]

Read carefully. This isn't a story symapthetic to the accused, but a "banality of evil" story--what Bush's war is doing to nice, ordinary Americans.

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.

[Barney Gumble]

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.

[Jeff Chandler]

a "banality of evil" story--what Bush's war is doing to nice, ordinary Americans.

That's Murtha's angle: Something happened, let's assume the worst and blame Bush.

[capt. norm]

First time I saw a picture of Cindy Sheehan, I mistook her for an old fishing buddy and I had known him for over 30 years.

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.

[Just A Nobody]

We missed the beginning of the operation, and ended up entering Haditha that evening. The city was empty of insurgents, or they had gone into hiding as they so often do, blending with the civilian population, waiting for U.S. and Iraqi forces to sweep through and then popping up again.

The terrorists are "civilians" as are the "insurgents"

Everyone but uniformed security personnel are "civilians"

[SE Mom]

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.

[r9etb]

More of the insanity in how we are fighting terrorists in Iraq.

More of the inanity from one of the resident keyboard kommandos.

[DCPatriot]

This further validates my suspicions on what transpired.

God Bless our troops and keep them safe.

[PISANO]

This report CONFIRMS that NOT all Marines in Haditha during the time of the ALLEGED killings were NOT stark raving mad men and is MUCH MORE pertinent to the investigation than the MSM's reporting of HEARSAY and MURTHA's maniacal rants.

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.

[NutCrackerBoy]

I think this story is a big positive.

[Right_in_Virginia]

BTTT

[Burr5]

This story starts off encouragingly enough, and then goes absolutely nowhere. I have no idea what her point is supposed to be.

[Yo-Yo]

After reading the entire article, it looks like CNN inadvertently (or purposely) left off a page 2 of the report.

[ZULU]

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.

[siunevada]

I have no idea what her point is supposed to be.

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'.