May 18, 2006
Something for Everyone - Left and Right
Recent reports about our military have both good news and upsetting news for people from both sides of the political spectrum.
First, something to disturb the left and to please the right:
Americans Enlist in Record Numbers from Strategy Page
May 16, 2006: In the last seven months, the U.S. Army has met or exceeded all of its recruiting goals. In that time, over 160,000 people have enlisted, or re-enlisted. The total strength of the active duty and reserve forces are 1.2 million men and women, all of them volunteers. ...the biggest asset in the recruiting effort has been the world-of-mouth from the troops themselves. They believe in what they are doing, and accomplishing.
I guess that the left's violent protests, running military recruiters off of campuses, and fighting military access to mailing lists of high schoolers have not been totally successful. If we could just re-direct the left's rage and fight against our real enemies, we could win the War on Terror in half the time.
Now, something to upset the right and to encourage the left to say "see, see!":
Murtha: Marines may have killed Haditha civilians in cold blood from Army Times
May 17, 2006: Rep. John Murtha, an influential Pennsylvania lawmaker and outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, said today Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood” after allegedly responding to a roadside bomb ambush that killed a Marine during a patrol in Haditha, Iraq, Nov. 19....A March 27 Time magazine report published claims by an Iraqi civil rights group that the Marines barged into houses near the bomb strike, throwing grenades and shooting civilians as they cowered in fear. The report prompted calls for a Pentagon probe. “It’s much worse than was reported in Time magazine,” Murtha, a Democrat, former Marine colonel and Vietnam war veteran, told reporters on Capitol Hill.
...Like the Haditha incident, the Fallujah shooting sparked outcries from human-rights groups regarding actions by U.S. forces against Iraqis.
Do you believe that? We're always the bad guys to the left--and they eat it up. Oh--no mention by various "human rights groups" about kidnappings, murders, and suicide bombers on the other side.
Well, we try to be fair and occasionally give both sides of issues. No matter where you fall, this news will likely create a reaction. What's yours?
Posted by Woody M. at May 18, 2006 08:50 AM | TrackBack"No matter where you fall, this news will likely create a reaction. What's yours?"
If Murtha and/or the media said it, then I automatically assume that its a lie until proven otherwise. I'm only very rarely disappointed, and every now and then pleasantly surprised. For me, that's the reality of it.
Posted by Vulgorilla at May 18, 2006 10:31 AM
“I do not know where Rep. Murtha is obtaining is information,” said Lt. Col. Sean Gibson, a spokesman for Marine Corps Forces Central Command in Tampa, Fla. “Thoroughness will drive the investigation.”
If the marines did do that, then I first of all feel real bad for all those people who have to live with being involved in that type of violence. They will be traumatized for the rest of their lives, and trauma caused by doing something wrong doesn't really add up to the punishment you should get for killing people like that. Though I haven't been there, I bet the warzone, with friends dying and stress running high, is the kind of place where this type of violence is likely. They shouldn't have done what they (possibly) did. And if they did, they need to be punished. Their situation should be taken into account, and the public shouldn't demonize the Marines for doing something when the public, me included, has never been in such a situation.
But it is even worse for the dead civilians.
Ultimately, if the left makes this into a talking point and tries to create a political advantage with this story, then I would be sorely unamused. They shouldn't do anything more than call for an invetigation, which they have, and let the wheels of justice turn.
But those marines weren't monolithically Republicans any more so than Democrats. If the marines are guilty, then everyone loses: the US, Iraq, Republicans, and Democrats, and the marines.
Posted by QuickRob at May 18, 2006 11:19 AM
I'm with QuickRob - let the wheels of justice turn. To politicize this before the investigation is complete and turn it into another media frenzy is just wrong. The sole purpose of it is to elicit widespread condemnation and then loosely tie it to every other allegation whether factual or not.
It doesn't say much for Time's readership that this hasn't been on everyone's lips until Murtha spouts off again. Has Murtha made one remark or uttered one single statement about any successes?
I don't know if these guys are guilty of bad judgement or not and I have faith in the military courts to get to the bottom of it.
I said this elsewhere but it bears repeating:
Wouldn't it be a great day when the fundamentalist Muslims in the Middle East start undermining their jihadi troops with defeatist attitudes, bad press and harping on their every misstep while marching in the streets with signs saying OsamaBinChimpyHitler?
Oh wait ... that's our side."
Posted by Oyster at May 19, 2006 05:03 AM
The attitude here should be that the Marines of that Company, platoon are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. No body knows what happened even the top brass of the Marine Corps investigating any wrong doing.
John Murtha, who is a class shit-bird, he doesn't know either but regardless of the facts he is trying to spin it in his favor to advance his agenda, and that is to pull all the troops out. His primary goal is to embarrass the United States and the President.
His constant berating of the troops and the adminsitration has done nothing but fuel the enemys resolve to continue their fight against us. In better times the Congressman would have been thrown in jail for Sedition.
Posted by Mark at May 19, 2006 07:12 AM
Damn right! Those Marines are innocent until proven guilty.
That traitor Murtha needs his lie-hole shut for him.
Murtha will answer for his treachery someday, and the CinC of the cosmos won't listen to murtha's spin.
Posted by Ben USN (Ret) at May 20, 2006 12:36 AM
Hey GM, we are not always the bad guys. BUT, there are always some bad guys among us. Now if you right wingers want to protect that sort of person, that is your privelege. But if you do, You are wrong, wrong, wrong. Remember Mei Lai in Vietnam. Evil is evil, you have no right nor reason to protect it. Where in the Christian ethos do you find justification for killing casual bystanders? I agree that the beheaders and kidnappers have earned the right to be killed without hesitation. The apparent problem is that we don't seem to know who they are, so a little bit of indiscriminate killing is O.K.?
If you right wingers would just face the fact that there should be no US soldiers in Iraq. Then this problem would be gone.
Identify for me, if you can, what has been accomplished in Iraq with the exception that nearly 20,000 of our young men have been wounded or killed?
Posted by James Melbert at May 23, 2006 09:25 AM
May I reccommend that all you righties view the HBO program "Baghdad ER". That is as close to the reality of war as most of you are likely to get.
Posted by James Melbert at May 23, 2006 09:30 AM
