[gondramB]

>>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.<

>>There were civilians in the city as well, and the Marines were always keenly aware of that fact. How they didn't fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don't know. But they didn't.<<

>>Now, all these months later, while watching the tapes, I found a walk and talk with one of the company commanders that was relieved of his duty as a result of the Haditha probe.<<

1. A fresh perspective from a reporter with first hand experience.

2. This is the first I've heard of commanders being relieved of duty.

[AppyPappy]

Somewhere, an editor is saying "He's too close to be objective. All our accounts should be from people who know nothing about it. The facts confuse the readers".

[gondramB]

Tonight, we give you a sharp picture of life of a GI at war. CNN's Arwa Damon reports from the front lines of Operation Steel Curtain near the Syrian border.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right to the left of the two long ones! Reloading! Reloading!

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gunny Jeff Cullen and his platoon in the thick of battle. With a front line that is never really clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clear! Come here! Cover your heads!

DAMON: From combat to confronting civilians.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One with child, another with kids, hands up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up!

DAMON: It's the reality of war in Iraq. And of this particular mission: To clear Juseva (ph) of insurgents who operate among the civilians who had no way to flee the fighting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cover your ears. It's going to be a little loud. Eyes up! Eyes up!

JEFF CULLEN, GUNNY, MARINES: It's kind of difficult. You shoot a rocket at one building because you have an insurgent inside and then you go to the next block up and you've got a family with six kids running around.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0511/22/acd.02.html

[pissant]

This guy can kiss his job with CNN goodbye.

[Lunatic Fringe]

But she wasn't with them at the time of the incident in question.

[Darkwolf377]

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.

[prophetic]

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.

And yet we have the "Honorourable Murtha" who having been elevated to the super postion of 'holy warrior' for having worn a uniform, has now acted as judge & jury in the case of innocents beig killed during a crossfire with these terrorists.

Every day that passes its more & more clearer that the Democrats, Liberals and esp the MSM are allies of these same terrorists that we claim to be fighting OVER THERE!!

[Thom Pain]

"And yet we have the "Honorourable Murtha Benedict Arnold" who having been elevated to the super postion of 'holy warrior' for having worn a uniform..."

[DK Zimmerman]

Re- commanders. Reportedly some 3-4 officers have been relieved/fired. Official version of matters seems to be that none of them had to do with the incident, directly, but supposedly "dereliction of duty."

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Right_in_Virginia]

BTTT

[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.

[r-q-tek86]

ping

[livius]

The commanders appear not to have been involved, but I think they were removed to compensate for the fact that the commanders (like the affirmative action female "general") were not removed during the investigation of the Abu Ghraib incident.

I thought her report was good and she gave a good description of the conditions. The ending was ambiguous, but the implication I got was that the local "insurgents" were simply claiming this "atrocity" and pulling a stunt.

[ocr1]

ping