Slightly revised from post .8 on Delphi Adult Christian ForumThread 98392. The link is to post .1, which arguably contains the first reliable, reasonably complete, account of the Haditha event. It appears to me to give the answers on a silver platter.
I am a bit dismayed that other commentators would rather give opinions than note the very high probability of the complete truthfulness of this detailed and reasonably full account.
I am particularly dismayed also by the use of such pejoratives as chaotic and went awry. Our Marines operated methodically and according to training and doctrine. If there were lapses, they were apparently minor and will be uncovered and appropriate action taken. Their response did not "go awry", it was the best that could be hoped for in the circumstances.
The terrorists also operated methodically according to their barbarous suicider code. By leaving or putting innocent civilians in places where avoidance of their own and American fire was improbable, they attempted to spread chaos, confusion, and terror. And they thus provided both our foreign and domestic enemies with highly emotional but untruthful talking points.
The only people driven "awry" by the "chaos" were the "useful idiots" of our media and political establishments who would rather use obvious enemy propaganda to further their own aims than to use the truth to defend the freedom that they enjoy. The freedom that others are defending (and extending) with their blood.
I regret using an excellent post (.5) to make some points that seem to have been missed. And missed by all commentators that I have found on the account of Haditha linked above.
This war is different.
This defense lawyer statement is different.
The truth is usually more difficult to find than just giving an opinion on the evidence available.
But, in this case, I believe that we have been given the answers on a silver platter.
I can think of no reason for the defendant via his lawyer to lie about any of the details in a rather complete account of the episode.
All these details have been and are being investigated. Congress and the media are watching. Any lie will have serious repercussions.
Contrary accounts are from enemy sources via agenda driven media.
{{___ I think that this is a very difficult situation that goes along with war.}}
"Truth is the first casualty of war." But there are sufficient radical differences between the current war on terror and all prior wars that old theories and prejudices need to be discarded.
Our universities and university educated are of little help. As Adam Smith said of the great English universities of his day: "They are the last refuge of exploded theories and obsolete prejudices that have been hunted out of every other corner of the world."
Please note the following:
. Our military is the best by far that the world has ever seen. In equipment, training, education, and professionalism they excel. But above all there is a legacy of Christian culture and tradition: a substantial residue of individual civic virtue: courage, justice, moderation, and prudence.
. Our enemies are barbarians and the enablers of barbarians.
. Our educators and those educated solely by them have, in general, lost their collective minds. By elevating multi-cultural diversity, they have lost all moral authority, for themselves, for their nation, for the world.
{{___ I think that massacres do occur, and innocents are intentionally targeted by some,}}
But attention should be paid to the greater things of the law. Not to tithing of mint and cumin. To beams, not motes.
There are those who wish to kill us and destroy our culture. Massacres and targeting innocents are their normal method of operation.
There may be comfort in Monday morning quarterbacking the minutiae of military discipline -
But it is perhaps better to resolve to support the cause that our men and women have so far so nobly advanced.
{{___ and that the government should investigate those who have high civilian casualties. I also believe that those who do not like the U.S. }}
Marvelous euphemism: "those who do not like the U.S."
Our foreign enemies hate us, and would do away with us.
Our domestic adversaries hate our Christian traditions, and would do away with them.
{{___ will exagerate and twist what really happend. As well, at times, politicians will sacrafice good soldiers in a mock trial just to keep the peace. }}
Take note of the lynch mob in the present case.
{{___ It is ugly from all sides, difficult to manage, investigate, and find the truth of what happened. }}
But as I said in the first post and at the top of this post: there is absolutely no reason to doubt the public statement of the staff sergeant in any factual detail.
