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I don't pretend to know what really occurred that day (or in the days following). The Marines could have done something horribly wrong, either premeditated or in the heat of battle. But I think it's pretty clear that, to an objective observer anyway, this "cut and dry" nonsense is just that. The story did NOT occur as Jack Murtha has tried to publicly portray it, at the expense of our military forces.

Presumption of innocence - if anyone deserves it, it's Americans laying their lives on the line for their country. If the investigation merits it - ONCE COMPLETED, Mr. Murtha - file charges and let them mount their defense.

I don't pretend to know what really occurred that day (or in the days following). The Marines could have done something horribly wrong, either premeditated or in the heat of battle. But I think it's pretty clear that, to an objective observer anyway, this "cut and dry" nonsense is just that. The story did NOT occur as Jack Murtha has tried to publicly portray it, at the expense of our military forces. Well said and I completly agree.......when my hubby was about to go over there I told him to shoot first and ask questions later...now my son is about to leave and I have told him not to do anything stupid.....

Nothing is ever cut and dry...we do not walk in their boots day after day...I always give the trooper the benefit of the doubt.

Coop...I've been reading your comments regarding Haditha and I think you're the bass player on the Titanic.

The best defense is a strong offense.

The Geneva rules shouldn't have any weight against a non-uniformed enemy.

Let it be known we treat any insurgent sympathizer a target.

That includes all people who obviously knew it was planted and set to explode against us.

It's a good strategy. Israel has survived on it.

Read this. It was by the same author, Tim McGirk, who miraculously broke the Hadifa story.

Thanksgiving With the Taliban
TIME correspondent Tim McGirk shares bread, raisins, and thoughts about the afterlife with some Taliban fighters, and finds some common ground
By TIM MCGIRK

With a few colleagues, I spent my Thanksgiving meal squatting on the floor of an Afghan passport office, talking to Taliban fighters about miracles and Judgement Day.

On the Afghan side of the border near the Pakistani town of Chaman, we had pulled into a Taliban base, a dusty courtyard with two broken-down cars. Earlier in the day, a convoy of journalists were stoned and robbed while leaving Spin Boldak, just up the road. Some 200 other journalists had already left for Pakistan. We were waiting for four reporters who had been led off into the Rigestan desert by the Taliban to look at some fuel tankers blown up by U.S. commandos. It didn't seem like a very good idea to leave our friends behind in Afghanistan.

So there we were, with darkness setting in, surrounded by curious and heavily armed Taliban. One fighter points up into the mauve twilight sky. I think he's showing me the crescent moon and I nod appreciatively: "Yes, very beautiful." Impatiently, he gestures over to a range of darkening hills, and then I see it: a B-52 bomber, its vapor trails catching the last rays of light. "American?" he asks me menacingly. "No, French," I lie.

I try to distract him by offering some raisins, and he backs away, laughing. Our guide Ahmed explains that the Taliban are fasting. It's Ramadan. On the other side of the world, Americans are waking up to Thanksgiving Day, football and turkey. A Washington Post reporter stranded here with me starts describing with considerable artistry the drool-inducing taste of his mother's turkey stuffing. We tell him to stop.

The sun's gone down, and now the starving Taliban can eat.

(snip)

Our missing colleagues finally arrive, and I leave thinking that maybe this evening wasn't very different from the original Thanksgiving: people from two warring cultures sharing a meal together and realizing, briefly, that we're not so different after all.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,185644,00.html