Posted on 09/13/2008 6:24:40 PM PDT by RedRover
I know.....DefendOurContractors.org DOM/DOT/DOC
Watch out Fred, the Obamabots at DU think you're talking about their messiah, and are upset by your racist comment.
Like we should care. LOL!
Great graphic, Red. That covers the Obambi supporters to a tea! :-)
The North County Times has done a fair assessment of what's at stake and I applaud them for that.
I also would add that I have a low opinion of any Iraqi government official (like this Barham, for example) who would hold up a conclusive agreement to our force level there.
We saved their bacon, they are free because of the sacrifice of OUR brave warriors.
Additionally, as for the delays in the remainining trials of the two remaining Haditha Marines, I believe these guys got it right....
Who’s Behind the Government’s Delay in Bringing the Haditha Case to a Close?
They nailed it ! The prosecution in both cases should be harshly admonished, IMO.
Sorry, but I don’t buy it. I am not going to defend Murtha for a minute, but Murtha cannot order a Courts Martial. That is entirely within the control of the President, and his senior DoD officials and the Convening Authorities.
True, but what in that article suggested to you that he did?
It's his insidious influence that is at issue, not his power to dictate by direct order matters of military justice.
But the government already has that admission by SSgt Wuterich in a sworn statement to a high-level investigator, Col. Gregory Watt. Anyone doing research for the story would find those words by SSgt Wuterich in his statement: “I told them to treat [the house] as a hostile environment. I told them to shoot first and ask questions later”.
So the government already has the evidence they say they are looking for. And it’s in the form of a sworn statement to an investigator, not on video tape for a television interview.
Meanwhile, SSgt Wuterich is left mercilessly twisting in the wind, saddled with mounting legal bills he can’t afford to pay, hoping for a day in court to clear his name.
Nor do I.
Gen Helland is due to leave Pendleton in November so there will be a new convening authority soon. Is the brass trying to spread out responsibility for the exonerations? Could be, if the case is that radioactive that anyone who comes near it is flirting with career-suicide.
Defeating an insurgency is damned difficult. The very last thing anyone needs is to have troops running around killing civilians. There's a reason armies would once take every tenth men in a company and shoot them on the spot. Occupiers need to show that they are there to protect the local population and will mete out impartial justice.
Murtha threw gasoline on the fire. He turned Haditha into a political, anti-war, story. Haditha wasn't front page news around the globe until Murtha confirmed the Time story and said the truth was even worse than Time reported.
Then Murtha boxed in the Bush Administration by asserting that no one could believe anything that the military or Bush officials said. After that, it was pointless for Administration officials or the military to refute any of the allegations in the media. Even Gen Pace went on CNN and was basically accused of being in on a cover-up.
As far as anyone knows, that's the extent of Murtha's involvement with the Haditha case. In public, at least, Murtha walked away from Haditha when it no longer had any political value.
So while the DoD and the Marine Corps brass are responsible for the prosecutions, suspicions still linger that Murtha is exerting influence behind the scenes. He brought the appearance of doing evil on himself.
As the article linked above says, Murtha could easily dispel suspicions by a full, public apology for his actions (not one of those "I'm sorry if I offended anyone" numbers). Such an apology would also go some distance toward restoring the reputation of the Marines involved and the US around the world.
Oh I think folks are picking up the hints and whiffs of what is going on. It is one massive public tail covering exercise between the administration, the political leadership in the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs and relevant field commands.
Remember we have Bush and the JCS doing end runs around each other over who controls Petraeus. What is that about? It is the same thing Murtha is about. It has nothing to do with Iraq. It is all about keeping the military procurement pork barrel rolling which is what the JCS does, and with Bush's popularity numbers in the tank he needs the support of those guys to have any influence with Congress at all. It is what SECNAV Winters is about, who never served a day in uniform and is an empty suit from the contracting community. These guys just want to keep money going for big procurements for systems under increasing levels of attack everywhere. That is where Murtha gets his influence. A bunch of hogs feeding from the same trough.
Right now, it is pretty clear that the only heroes in the war on terror are Petraeus and some folks he brought in, plus the real heroes fighting on the ground.
You have no idea what a self-absorbed place DC is. And Bush's guys and gals are even worse good ol boys than Clinton's were. Roberts and Alito are the exception. The norm is Miers.
First, I don't care what happens; when you break faith with your troops by sacrificing a couple of guys in a publicly embarrassing display of injustice, you have destroyed the moral fiber of your fighting force. No competent commander does that or allows it to happen, and you can take that implication right from the very bottom all the way up to the very tippy top.
Second, it just shows what a bunch of self-absorbed amateurs we have running the palace in DC. This is not exactly the first time in our history that the press has reported a scandal that just wasn't so. Professionals know how to deal with this. It takes time, patience, information, etc. What it doesn't need is a 4-star on the Sunday talk show circuit as fodder for the Dan Rather wannbe Charlie Gibson look alike contest and only an idiot neophyte in the DC public relations battle would do that, not that Bush hasn't found a lot of those guys.
I hope people are beginning to get a sense that this is just another painfully clear example of how thoroughly incompetent this administration is. The two guys who are not a total joke are Gates, who is a Bush 1 not a Bush 2 man, and Petraeus, who they ended up with after everyone else botched the war.
PS, I think that we have also witnessed the politicization of Navy Criminal Investigative Service, which, BTW, reports to Winters.
Which exactly proves the type of "person" Murtha really is. I can't bring myself to call him a man, cause he's not. Too bad you can't cut a snake off at the knees, cause if there was any one more deserving... And our Military are not agent provocateurs. Unfortunately, civilians are killed. But there is a statement in this showing the "civilian" population is complicit in the insurgency. When you have people who are joe blow by day, and joe blow-up by night, precisely pinpointing "civilians" may be impossible. To prosecute these Marines in this situation is going way too far, IMO. They did nothing wrong.
Murtha has stated publicly that he has friends in high places in DOD, though he hasn't named names it's plain that is true.
SECNAV Winter has headed companies that Murtha has had connections to for years with defense contracts and companies which have donated heavily to his campaigns.
Murtha undoubtedly knows many flag rank officers just from being involved with defense spending for so many years.
Though he is not in the direct chain of command as fas as unlawful command influence goes for the charges of all the Haditha Marines he holds the purse strings for our military and it's not much of a stretch to believe he could influence the people involved in these charges.
After the despicable statements he's made publicly about these Marines there's no doubt in my mind that his actions constitute the appearance of UCI>
I, myself, am divided because I believe these men are being railroaded but I also want to win in Iraq.
I'm a practical man. Why should I care if a few lousy lance corporals and staff sergeants spend a few years in Leavenworth if it's a means toward defeating the insurgency?
And wouldn't the accused serve their country by falling on their own spears?
There's every evidence that Gen Petraeus would agree with the above. He supports these prosecutions and seems to want punishment for every man accused.
So I don't think it's as same simple as blaming Bush, except for making the decision to fight a war in the first place. I tend to see these prosecutions as the natural outcome of waging a counterinsurgency. And I think any president's administration would make the same decision as the Bush Administration.
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