Cynthia Tucker: War supporters deny truths about Iraq

[deadparrot]

Since last November, when U.S. Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., began calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, he has been under fire from hard-core conservatives. Like every combat veteran before him who has come to question the pretext for war or its prosecution, Murtha has been denounced as a traitor, a coward, a defeatist and a liar.

Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan called Murtha's stance on withdrawal a "surrender to the terrorists." And, of course, the 38-year Marine veteran has been swiftboated: Critics have questioned his two Purple Hearts, on no grounds whatsoever.

In mid-May, Murtha put himself in the firestorm again when he revealed details about apparent war crimes committed by U.S. Marines in Haditha, Iraq, last fall. "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood," Murtha said.

While news organizations had already cast doubts on early battlefield reports that blamed civilian casualties in the Nov. 19 incident on an incendiary planted by insurgents, Murtha was the first congressman to publicly lend credence to reports of atrocities. High-ranking military officials have since acknowledged two separate investigations of the incident: Army Maj. Gen. Eldon Bargewell is looking into the initial inaccurate battlefield reports, while the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is investigating the 24 civilian deaths. The NCIS probe may lead to homicide charges, according to reports.

http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060604/NEWS/606040848/1006/SPORTS

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Surrender to the terrorists?? Why, you're speaking for one right

now Scotty....

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m23401&hd=0&size=1&l=e

Transcription

Majid Al Ghezali : They used incredible weapons

Patrick Dillon: Experimental weapons?

Majid Al Ghezali : Yes… Yes, I think. They shoot the bus. We saw the bus like a cloth, like a wet cloth. It seemed like a Volkswagen, a big bus like a Volkswagen.

This testimony was reported to American filmmaker Patrick Dillon a few weeks after the battle for the airport (April 2003) . The person interviewed, Majid al Ghezali, is a well-known and respected man in Baghdad, who is the first violinist in the city orchestra.
In addition to describing the battle, Majid al Ghezali wanted to show Patrick Dillon the site near the airport where this mysterious weapon was used, along with the traces of fused metal still visible, and the irregularly sized ditches where the cadavers were buried before they were exhumed.
We sought out Majid al Ghezali to hear more details of his story. We met up with him in Amman and he pointed out some inexplicable peculiarities on the bodies of the victims of the battle for the airport.

Majid Al Ghezali: Just the head was burnt. In the other parts of the body there wasn’t anything.

Al Ghezali reported that he had seen three passengers in a car, all dead, with their faces and teeth burnt, their clothes intact, and no sign of projectiles.

Majid Al Ghezali :There wasn’t any bullet. I saw their teeth, just the teeth, and they had no eyes, all of them, there was nothing on their bodies.

There were other inexplicable aspects: the terrain where the battle took place was dug up by the American military and replaced with other fresh earth; the bodies that were not hit by projectiles had shrunk to just slightly more than one meter in height.

[jaysunb]

2. Where have we heard this before ??

Well, Bargewell may not. According to published reports, the Army general is likely to conclude that, among other things, troop training has been flawed, with too much emphasis on traditional combat against an identifiable, uniformed enemy and too little training for counterinsurgency.

Sounds like 1968 to me. Maybe if a few of these chickenhawks had served or paid close attention to why so many were opposed to that fiasco, they may have had a clue this time around.