Vinnie on Haditha

Vinnie at Mypetjawa writes:

“I think we should wait until the convictions [of any Marines involved in Haditha] are pronounced. Why is that so hard to comprehend?”

NO. NO. NO.

There are two things that people like Vinnie are mixing up:

1) A massacre occurred in Haditha on that date, unless the media reports of the DoD findings are wholly screwed up. Not likely. This happened. You can also read interviews by survivors. Or the video of this Marine. Something very very bad happened there.

2) The guilt of any individual Marine would have to be established, beyond a reasonable doubt, in a court martial. No one, me included, has proclaimed any individual as “guilty.”

Two different things. Don’t mix them up. Every Marine who is ultimately charged, deserves, and will get, due process.

But Vinnie is kidding himself if he thinks this massacre didn’t happen. Or if he thinks that people who do report on this are Khomeini-ists.

Trackbacks & Pings

  1. Hot Air » Blog Archive » Blogfeuds: Hot Air vs. Jawa Report, Jeff Goldstein vs. pretty much every lefty blogger in America on 01 Jun 2006 at 12:25 pm

    […] Update: The Commissar responds to Vinnie with a fine distinction. […]

  2. Right Wing Nut House on 01 Jun 2006 at 6:32 pm

    WHAT THE LEFT REALLY WANTS FROM HADITHA…

    Are you curious about what the left really wants to get out of the Haditha massacre?

    Carol and the rest of her Bush-defending pals need to go home and take an ethics class. Then they need to ask forgiveness. This kind of argument is shameful. In fa…

Comments

  1. Phillep wrote:

    Remember Jenin? Total fabrication.

    How about “Wedding reception”?

    And, how about suicide bombers blowing up children clustered around Marines passing out candy?

    Wasn’t there a Hellfire strike in Afghanistan that killed a number of terrorists, whose bodies were removed from the site before anyone could get there to do a body check?

    Do we know how many of the dead were actually killed by US troops? If any?

    We simply do not know who is responsible for which death, yet.

    No, I’m not trying to make excuses. I’m saying “Wait for the facts before getting excited.” The Marines may, repeat “may”, have done all the killing, and there might, repeat “might”, have been only two rifles in opposition hands in the incident.

    Let’s make sure, first. Okay?

    Posted 01 Jun 2006 at 3:41 pm

  2. Foster wrote:

    ‘Phillep’? What kind of facts are you waiting for? We have all the proof that we need to know that, in the Commissar’s words, ’something very, very bad happened there’. The sooner we as a nation own up to this, we easier the damage control will come.

    Posted 01 Jun 2006 at 5:00 pm

  3. Geek, Esq. wrote:

    Both left and right ideologues miss the most disturbing aspect of this: incidents like Haditha are inevitable in an occupier vs. insurgent war like we have in Iraq.

    The leftists need to acknowledge that this doesn’t tell us anything new about Iraq–indeed this kind of thing is one reason why we opposed the war to begin with.

    Meanwhile, the rightwingers need to acknowledge that this sort of thing is going to happen in war. If we invade and occupy another country, it will lead to baby girls getting murdered.

    Those who would smear all Marines with the crimes of a few are beneath contempt, and those who dismiss these deaths as just a bunch of dead Arabs are even lower.

    Posted 01 Jun 2006 at 8:24 pm

  4. Phillep wrote:

    Foster, something bad happened.

    Who did it?

    Posted 01 Jun 2006 at 8:37 pm

  5. Geek, Esq. wrote:

    Phillep:

    Read the news. Their defense lawyer is saying that the USMC will be filing MURDER charges in this case.

    Posted 01 Jun 2006 at 11:25 pm

  6. Geek, Esq. wrote:

    Strike that last comment–different murder investigation.

    Posted 01 Jun 2006 at 11:55 pm

  7. gunjam wrote:

    Sorry, but I am not buying for a nanosecond the “veracity” of the survivors’ so-called “eyewitness” accounts. For one thing, they were living in an insurgents’ hornets’ nest at the time and could HARDLY have been free to tell the truth. Second, I seriously suspect there to have been some insurgent “coaching” on some of these accounts. I follow Michael Savage’s reasoning here. He actually has played snippets from some of these “eyewitness survivor” accounts. In one, a VERY young girl gives some aburdly detailed account about how a Marine put [I believe she said] “seven bullets” in one of her loved ones’ head. As Savage points out, this makes no sense: How does she know it wasn’t six or eight rounds. I doubt highly that anyone in that situation would be coolly counting the number of rounds being pumped into a loved one’s head. Moreover, there would seemingly be little remaining forensic evidence after the fact: wouldn’t seven rounds pretty much liquify someone’s head? From my perspective, there is something rotten in Haditha — and I am NOT talking about our Marines, either. — gunjam

    Posted 08 Jul 2006 at 11:52 am

  8. Diana wrote:

    Totally agree with Gunjam. In one interview I saw a 12 or 13 year old girl say, “I got up for school, but I knew the bomb was going to go off so I got in bed and covered my head”. To which they said oh no she made a mistake, she meant the Marines. How would she know the Marines were going to be shooting that day? Is she psychic? The first story made more sense, so then you have to ask yourself how would this child know a bomb was going to explode unless she heard her family talking to other’s about it, or had done it themselves. I agree with the first general there was no cover-up. Those filing the reports didn’t ask the right questions. You don’t know who your enemies are, you’ve just been attacked on a city street, people are shooting at you on rooftops. You have one soldier cut in half. Men drive past without stopping and laughing. What are you going to do? You kick in a door and start shooting, who’s your enemy? How many more of your are going to die? It’s your life or theirs. You can’t give these men guns and send them into a blind war. Not knowing who their enemies are, and say ok you can shoot this one or that one, but no shooting this one or that one. No air support at all, so our soldiers are dying when they don’t have too. There are children throwing hand grenades at them, they lower their guard to trust anyone and they end up with their eyes gouged out and beheaded. I’m starting to agree with the left bring our men home, they are now dying and being accused for the wrong reasons. If you send our son’s and daughter’s, our families into a war and they are being shot at, then let them defend themselves or bring them home. Where’s Stormin’ Norman when we need him? Come Back!

    Posted 08 Jul 2006 at 10:46 pm

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