PBS Newshour did a little special on the IVAW's Winter Soldier II spectacular held in front of the esteemed (snort) members of the Progressive Caucus. PBS even got the disgusting Gary Solis - who has thrown the Haditha Marines under the bus as much as John Murtha - to express his belief in those testifying...
KWAME HOLMAN: Retired Marine Lieutenant Colonel Gary Solis is an attorney and expert on the law of armed conflict. He teaches at West Point. Before watching the televised "Winter Soldier" meeting at our request, he was skeptical about their claims. Afterward, he changed his mind.
LT. COL. GARY SOLIS: I was immediately impressed with the sincerity, the depth of feeling, the sense of wanting to right wrong. What they had to say jibes with reports I've received from lieutenants who returned to West Point where I taught. My former students come back and tell me the same thing.
Yeah, just like you believed and spread the same crap about the Haditha Marines and had them convicted before they were even charged. As an expert and an attorney, shouldn't Solis have reported these claims? If he did not report the claims, isn't he as complicit as the soldier who waits until he gets some camera face-time to make the claims?
But Bing West, who has actually been in Iraq several times and embedded with the Marines in Fallujah had this to say about some of the claims made by IVAW members...
KWAME HOLMAN: Former Marine Corps Captain Bing West worked in the Pentagon during the Reagan administration and has spent a considerable amount of time in Iraq. He's written two books about the war. He agrees that the servicemembers should have reported their allegations when they happened.
CAPT. BING WEST: If they feel that strongly about it, for the sake of their consciences, then they should name the names. Otherwise, what they're indicating is that something was widespread and it wasn't widespread, and so they're defaming over a million other soldiers by saying this was commonplace. And that's a canard. That's a lie.
And about those claims of dropped weapons to make a civilian look like an insurgent...
KWAME HOLMAN: But Bing West said the notion of widespread use of drop weapons is ridiculous, and furthermore...
CAPT. BING WEST: And I would argue that what we're talking about here are anomalies. And it's unfair to the reputation of our entire military to take anomalies and to claim that they were the norm.
I've read both books by Bing West. He's not one to gloss over issues and certainly not a syncophant of the Bush Administration or the Pentagon. Amazingly, not one of the members of IVAW are mentioned in either one of Bing West's books. And he was right in the thick of both battles of Fallujah and with the Marines during the taking of Baghdad. I would trust Bing West's words a thousand times over. So PBS's attempt to salvage some semblance of "truth to power" for IVAW was stymied by Bing West.
Nice of PBS to use taxpayer money to give these fellas another platform to spread their spew... especially since they couldn't get any ears in Congress except for the Marxists. But don't worry - IVAW will be well represented at the Socialism 2008 Conference. Birds of a feather, huh?
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