Posted on 10/18/2007 9:59:32 PM PDT by smoothsailing
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
What Happened at Haditha The massacre that wasn't, and its political exploitation.
Friday, October 19, 2007 12:01 a.m.
The incident at Haditha--or the massacre, as it is often called--is due for a wholesale rethinking. The allegations are that in 2005 U.S. Marines went on a killing spree and deliberately executed 24 Iraqi civilians. The casualties have drawn an extraordinary amount of political attention, becoming an emblem for everything critics say is wrong with the Iraq war--in the common telling, another My Lai.
Thus Congressman Jack Murtha, a decorated combat veteran, made accusations of war crimes and said the Marines had killed "in cold blood." These are serious charges; and military justice continues to deal with them seriously, though thankfully at a slower pace than politics. Now the prosecutions have mostly unraveled. It seems Haditha, though tragic, was exploited politically, and the allegations were exaggerated, if not unfounded.
Here is what we know. On November 17, 2005, Kilo Company of the First Marine Regiment's Third Battalion was returning from a routine logistics mission in Haditha, a town 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. Haditha is in Anbar province, a heart of the Sunni insurgency with one of the highest U.S. casualty rates in Iraq. The security situation at the time was treacherous.
Shortly after 7 a.m., an improvised explosive device detonated under the last vehicle in Company K's four-Humvee convoy. It instantly killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas and wounded two others. Windows were shattered for 150 yards, and smoke and debris were everywhere.
An oncoming white sedan had been waved over near the stalled convoy. Five military-age occupants exited and disobeyed orders in Arabic to halt; at least one began to run......
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
It was a psyop much like the Jenin(sp?) massacre
Murtha get his purple hearts the same as John Kerry or was he once a courageous, principled man?
Who wrote this ? Mr Obvious ?
Geeze any one with half a brain on drugs and drunk would have known this thing was super hyped from the start ...
Great article. It was a grotesque shame indeed to have these Marines used for political purposes and slander. I know in my heart these Marines involved feel badly about the civilian casualties, after all unlike the insurgents they have feelings too. However, they should also know that under the extreme circumstances what they did was fully justifiable.
Don’t peer too closely or you’ll discover that he is every bit as slimy (notice that I didn’t say “phony” ;’} as sKerry!
The entire Haditha incident was magnified and pumped by Soros’s Human Rights Watch group - for obvious purposes.
Thanks for the post.
This is all what I guessed from the beginning. Murtha and the others promoting this propaganda story should be the ones facing a jury.
The article opens with a good pace and pulls you right into the insurgency attack. No prejudice or leading remarks about motive.
>> It seems Haditha, though tragic, was exploited politically, and the allegations were exaggerated, if not unfounded.
Yes, it does seem that way.
>> In retrospect, the men in the car had no weapons or explosives;
Is it settled the men in the car were unarmed?
It's about time the real story made the MSM. It's not enough but it's a start. I wish it went a step further and named those who need to apologize. It doesn't call out Tim McGirk and Time Magazine who started the whole mess, though it does mention the traitor Murtha clearly. I don't see a byline. Who actually wrote this?
Not to my knowledge, Eric. I believe there was testimony and evidence presented that one AK-47 was found in the white sedan and also testimony that after the Marines cleared the vehicle there were stacked AK-47's beside the vehicle, IIRC.
Red Rover and jazusamo have a better recollection on this than I do and I am pinging them to this post.
Thank you, scumbag Democrats.
It comes from Friday's editorial page and is categorized as "REVIEW & OUTLOOK". That means it is the editorial board staff that wrote it with the approval for publication by the editorial page editor, John Fund.
It is nice to see this great summary of the Haditha hoax in the Wall Street Journal. Reading it through, carefully and thoroughly, it makes my blood boil more than ever that some of these Marines are still twisting in the wind. The entire prosecution is an obscene disgrace.
C’mon General Mattis - - end it today.
"...in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan..."
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