Semper Fi, Marine
Another Marine has been cleared of wrong doing at Haditha leaving only one left to go to trial. All the other Marines involved have either had the charges dropped or were cleared at court martial.
Military Judge Col. Steven Folsom dropped all charges against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, who was accused of violating a lawful order and dereliction of duty, at a hearing at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in Southern California.
Folsom’s decision means that, out of eight Marines originally charged in December 2006, six have won dismissals of their charges and one has been cleared at court martial.
The accused ringleader, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, still faces court martial. The proceedings against him, however, have been put on hold pending the appeal of a pretrial ruling.
Brutally Honest covers it very well too:
Many people speak of the terror and agony of combat. And of how it affects the psyche of men for the rest of their lives. Some call it post traumatic stress disorder. But what do you call a betrayal of faith and confidence by the service and the country that you served. Or the injury inflicted when your nation brands you a murderer up front, then slowly works it’s way toward the truth. Is there a medical diagnosis for that or an identified service connect disability condition? What about a treatment. Can you restore a man’s self pride, his honor or his feelings of honor and duty, after he has been publicly shamed by his own country and vilified by those in the media and the US Congress? Those who had been all to eager to strip away his rights and condemn him of a crime for eternity, are now deafeningly silent.
These same people who were willing to scream ‘Murderer’ without knowing any of the facts are they same ones that condemned a certain lacrosse team before an investigation was even finished. People who are more interested in being right, even if they are wrong, than the are with truth and fact.
People like John Murtha are a disgrace not only to the uniform he used to wear, but the system of law he supposedly believes in. I’ve gone to class with people like him, even when I showed them evidence that contradicted what they were sure happened at Haditha and Duke University they would not budge. Evidence that did not fall into their pre-conceived ideas was summarily discarded and considered irrelevant.
Let’s see if Murtha will offer a public apology for what he said. My guess is going to be a big “no”.
