Haditha Hacks Will Not Destroy the Marines

When our son left for Anbar Province Iraq in August 2005 it quickly became apparent to us that there was something horribly wrong with the news coverage coming out of there. By the time Operation Steel Curtain began the only sources we trusted were Bill Roggio, Michael Yon, Free Republic and the Milbloggers.

Our son was among the first group of Marines going into Haditha during that offensive. I first heard about the Haditha allegations sometime in March and wondered how I would feel and act if he was one of the young men now under suspicion (attack might be a better word) for killing Iraqi civilians. It is quite simple. The only source of truth would be my son and I would believe and defend him without question.

The main stream media has absolutely no credibility with us. Their oversimplified reports and editorials disguised as reports were so different from what he and other military families were telling us that we finally had to cancel the newspaper and turn off the TV.

One particularly egregious incident took place when our son's platoon had a couple of CNN babes embedded with them. Terrorists they were taking fire from were positioned behind a wall. When the Marines took out the wall it also heavily damaged a house in the courtyard next to it injuring civilians.

The first CNN report briefly mentioned the "insurgents" but later reports dropped that reference and focused on the wounded civilians with the CNN babes claiming to perform triage with no film of the corpsmen who came to the rescue. For several news cycles, video of the wounded civilians was used as backdrop for reporting of other events.

Almost lost among the gazillion lefty blogs sporting "The Few, The Proud, The Murderers!" this weekend, I came upon an excellent piece excerpted below. I urge you to follow the link and read the entire bit: Marines Are Honored Warriors.

Get ready to hear about Haditha. Hear about it. And hear about it. Will we hear the truth about it? The long history of these media frenzies to discredit the American Marines does not reassure us that we will.

We are preconditioned to expect the American media to lead the world in attempting to erase the U.S. Marines. The Marines are the target. The best warriors always become the targets. Whether you are an incomparable U.S. Marine or the great boxing champion of the stature of the late Joe Louis, the yipping pack of Media Philosopher Kings will spare no expense to bring you down.

For the media elite, the investment in wounding the American military will again pay incredible dividends for TV and radio talkers and book writers and publishers.

Did the kids commit atrocities? We don't know. However, don't be seduced by the word "atrocities." Assuming that a reliable attempt will be made to ascertain the facts, reading the facts with justice in a combat situation will prove almost impossible unless the military notation is employed. Military charges are adjudicated under the Code of Military Justice. Only combat officers are capable of understanding combat conditions.
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Yes, the Corps has friends. But we lack the political leadership, global power and global wealth to oppose the unscrupulous might of the political and media forces arrayed against the Corps. We lack the genius and energy that will be required to rectify every utterance of perversity and untruth. Essentially we are ill equipped to perform our duties as protectors of the Corps.

We may be ill equipped but we damn sure better give it our best shot.