We’ve gotten used to the media taking potshots at the military. It has become a regular day to day occurrence. Reports from Iraq reveal that our soldiers are too busy doing their jobs to pay much attention to the blathering from the armchair generals in the media - thank goodness. But when the knife in your back is thrown by your “brothers”, it has got to hurt. John Murtha, the ex-Marine, threw the first knife but he was certainly not the last.
The Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) wasted little time tossing the Haditha Marines under the Humvee. The IVAW sent out press releases instead of daggers. The statements from the IVAW Press Release made it into many of the “Haditha Massacre” articles on the Internet. And trashing the Haditha Marines wasn't enough for these guys - they couldn't resist damning the entire US Military. More proof of just how much the IVAW supports the troops.
Joel Wendland at Political Affairs used the IVAW statement to get in his digs against the Marines…
“For some Iraq war veterans, however, the Haditha massacre is not isolated. In a statement released to the press this week, Iraq war veteran and former sniper who served at the siege of Fallujah, Garrett Reppenhagen said ‘There were massacres by ones and twos all over Iraq.”
It must have felt like Christmas in Cambodia to the IVAW - a chance to get in a few anti-military digs while trashing the Marines. Typical of the IVAW – claim massacres but don’t offer up any facts to back them up. Despite knowing about all these “massacres”, the IVAW members never reported the claims to the higher ups. They waited to get back on US soil and told their sorry tales at Ramsey Clark’s fake hearings.
“Reppenhagen also stated, ‘There were a lot of reasons that lead to events like this but the thing you can’t get away from is that if these troops were not in Iraq, this wouldn’t be happening.”
Opps – looks like the “Bush’s Fault” pink slip is showing. When you can’t counter with facts, toss in some “Bush lied” coupled with a sprinkling of BDS and you’ve got a perfect mixture of tinfoil hattedness.
But why should we expect anything but hatred for the President and the war from Reppenhagen. After all in the article “Tin Soldiers” from December 2006, Reppenhagen made several confessions…
“No one knew who was slapping stickers all over US military bases in Iraq. Large yellow labels that read “Bush Lies, Who Dies” began turning up in barracks, recreation centers and dining halls in August 2004.”
“Reppenhagen learned from an Iraqi how to write an Arabic translation of a common swearword followed by “Bush”. He memorized it, taught Jeff Englehart, and the two furtively drew the phrase with white paint pens on the back of Humvees.”
Wow – nothing like undermining the war effort while you are actually serving in the war zone. I’m sure the insurgents appreciated Reppenhagen’s efforts.
But I digress.
Wendland continued…
“Former Navy corpsman Charlie Anderson, who accompanied Marines during the initial invasion, added that US Marines typically responded to shots with overwhelming force even in populated areas. ‘How big a step is it really from shooting up a village from 100 meters away and shooting a family in its home?’ he wondered.
Anderson is an expert in “massacres”. In September 2006 he claimed to have witnessed the “murdering of thousands of Iraqis” during the invasion and the expansion of American control of Iraq. And those that gave the ultimate sacrifice – Anderson’s brothers in arms? According to Anderson it was for nothing except to line the pockets of Bechtel and Halliburton. Or as he said of a Marine killed in action…
“It’s meaningless because the war is not fought for our national security… His life was laid not on the altar of freedom but on the altar of corporate greed and the military industrial complex.”
Sounds like someone picked up the talking points from the Socialist Party website before THAT interview.
Over at Global Research, Coral Wynter and Jim McIlroy also reported on the IVAW statement in the article, “US Soldiers: Iraq Massacre Not Exception.” Wynter and McIlroy included the following statement from the IVAW in their Marine bash-a-thon…
“The statement said that foreign troops ‘cannot simultaneously be empathetic to a population and be obliged to control that same population by pointing guns at them, breaking into their homes, turning them into collateral damage and taking vengeance on them out of the inevitable frustration of fighting an urban counter-insurgency.”
In other words – our soldiers are the terrorists out to try to satisfy some bloodlust.Does anyone else feel like we’ve stepped back in time to the Winter Soldier investigation?
Not content to simply issue a group statement, many members of IVAW struck out on their own with condemnation for the Haditha Marines. Here’s a sample. Notice the overuse of Murtha-isms and excessive bouts of BDS in the statements.
Charlie Anderson:
“What followed by all accounts was a blood bath.”
Yes it was a blood bath - brought on by terrorists attacking the Marines and then hiding among the women and children.
“Their actions were the result of conditioning on both the training field and the battlefield.”
Thank God for the training and conditioning of the Haditha Marines. If not for Kilo Company, who knows if Fallujah would have ever been cleared. The training they received literally saved their lives - in Fallujah and Haditha.
“It taught them they had to kill first if they wanted to survive. When they felt attacked and enraged at the death of their friend, they like ‘snapped’ and went on a rampage and if found guilty may pay with their lives.”
The only thing that "snapped" is Anderson's connection to the reality of war.
Anderson couldn't resist getting a few shots at the President and his administration...
“They failed to evaluate the situation in Iraq before committing troops to an unconventional war where the enemy is elusive and often not defined.”
Hold on now - here comes the obligatory comparison of Haditha to My Lai...
“In short, they did everything within their power to ensure that the physical and mental strain on these troops would be immense. At best this administration and this Congress can be considered un-indicted co-conspirators in what has been termed the My Lai of the Iraq War.”
Garrett Reppenhagen:
“In these circumstances you would be surprised at how any normal human being can see their morals degenerate so they can do these things.”
The Marines at Haditha were doing their jobs in a kill or be killed situation. As far as moral degenerates, take a look in the mirror and pose the question to the reflection you see.
Joseph Hatcher:
“I have a problem understanding how something like this could happen. There’s no rationale for how the soldiers acted. I very much appreciate what Murtha is doing.”
Yeah well most of us have a problem understanding how anyone could appreciate Murtha's slander. Anyone that admires the way Murtha denigrated the Marines in Haditha is obviously divorced from reality.
Michael Blake:
"I was never in such a situation, but several people in my unit were and they were told that if a bomb goes off, you shoot up the landscape at anything that moves."
Have you ever noticed how those claiming war crimes were committed never actually witnessed the events, they just heard about them from someone else (who is always anonymous)
Pathetic does not even come close to describing this group of ex-soldiers. The last time there was this level of betrayal of brothers in arms was during Vietnam. But what do you expect from a group that gets their marching orders from David Cortright and others that made their bones years ago by slandering the soldiers in Vietnam.
These men tour the country wearing their defaced uniforms calling on others in the military to go AWOL or refuse to fight. They claim to support the troops but their statements about Haditha and those fighting in Iraq prove otherwise. Like their comrade Murtha they are not worthy to lick the boots of the Haditha Marines. And like their good buddy Murtha, they owe the Haditha Marines a public apology.
**This is Part 3 of a multi-post series exposing those that played judge and jury against the Marines in Haditha**
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