A CNN reporter who traveled with these accused Marines and just can’t believe what they are being accused of.
A reporter’s shock at the Haditha allegations
“I was with them in Husayba as they went house to house in an area where insurgents would booby-trap doors, or lie in wait behind closed doors with an AK-47, basically on suicide missions, just waiting for the Marines to come through and open fire. There were civilians in the city as well, and the Marines were always keenly aware of that fact. How they didn’t fire at shadows, not knowing what was waiting in each house, I don’t know. But they didn’t.”
And then there is this…….
Drone’s Video May Aid Marine Inquiry
Footage Shot on Day of Iraq Incident
A Drone drone recording and recordings of radio contacts show the Marines were under small arms fire at the time of the incident that Congressman Murtha calls ‘cold-blooded murder.
This is from the article…….
There’s a ton of information that isn’t out there yet,” said one lawyer, who, like the others, would speak only on the condition of anonymity because a potential client has not been charged. The radio message traffic, he said, will provide a different view of the incident than has been presented by Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) and other members of Congress. For example, he said, contrary to Murtha’s account, it will show that the Marines came under small-arms fire after the roadside explosion.
Also this………..
War In Iraq Duncan Hunter To Murtha
But Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, also a Vietnam Veteran, who served in the 173rd Airborne and 75th Army Rangers, who got all the briefings on the matter Murtha got, says the “in cold blood” allegations by Murtha are all wet.
In early May, the Marine Corps announced that a Marine charged with shooting an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque that had been used as a sanctuary and an armory for jihadists would not face court-martial. The Marine was found to be justified in perceiving a threat and using deadly force.
The next time you surf the Internet, do a Google search on Rafael Peralta. In that same November 2004 battle for Fallujah, Marine Sgt. Peralta was shot in the head and chest at close range as they went house to house clearing the town of jihadists. As he lay dying on the floor of a terrorist hideout, he saw a yellow, foreign-made grenade that if it had detonated would have taken out his entire squad. To save his fellow Marines, he reached out, grabbed the grenade and tucked it under his abdomen, where it exploded.
Lt. Pantano and Marines such as those at Haditha face a death sentence every day in a war with an enemy that obeys no rules. They are heroes, not war criminals. Yet there are some who think their reward for putting their lives on the line for their country and doing their duty to the best of their ability should be a murder charge, just because they don’t like the policy that put them there.
There’s one thing these men are that many in the media and Congress are not — and it is shown in the Marine motto. Semper fi.