In one sense, it is a great day for Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani, USMC, his family, the United States Marine Corps, and the country. Friday, the military Board of Inquiry found him not guilty of misconduct after the Haditha incident in Iraq in 2005. The Board ruled he should not be demoted.
Chessani had already been cleared of criminal charges, but the government decided to prosecute him for misconduct for not fully reporting the incident in the aftermath, even though all his superiors filed reports saying the investigation was satisfactory and no further action was warranted.
However, according to the Thomas More Law Center which defended Chessani, the Board also ruled he will be forced into retirement because "he displayed substandard performance by failing to conduct a more detailed investigation of the civilians killed as a result of the house clearing actions of four Marines after they were ambushed in Haditha, Iraq on November 19, 2005.
According to the president of TMLC, and chief Counsel, Richard Thompson, the government had a weak case going in. He said in a military setting such as this, the rules governing evidence and burden of proof work in favor of the prosecution. Thompson insisted the evidence was overwhelmingly support ive of "total exoneration."
Time magazine reporter Tim McGirk is 'credited' with breaking the Haditha story, based on questionable sources. His reporting sparked the media feeding frenzy, and Time was forced revise and correct its reporting.
Following the Haditha incident, eight Marines were charged. Four were charged with murder. Four were charged with misconduct. One Marine still faces criminal charges, SSgt. Frank Wuterich. Six others, including Chessani, were acquitted or had criminal charges dropped.
Wuterich's parents speak out in this article.
Shortly after the Haditha story broke, Rep. John Murtha, a former Marine, called the Haditha Marines murderers. Murtha was roundly condemned for jumping to conclusions, acting as judge, jury and executioner even before the investigation had run its course. Murtha went so far as to allege conspiracy, saying officers up the chain of command were covering up the incident.
Chessani's attorney Robert Muise told the Board of Inquiry on Friday his client was a scapegoat, sacrificed "to appease the anti-war media and anti-war politician John Murtha. Here’s your scapegoat. Here’s your fall guy."
Pictures of all the Haditha Eight, and more information here.
We don't hear much about Iraq and the successes brought by the American military now, do we?
MY COMMENTARY:
The American media outlets that jumped on the bandwagon with Murtha to condemn these Marines should be ashamed and humiliated they engaged in lynch mob journalism.
A full and complete apology should be published and broadcast with the same amount of time and space devoted to such apologies as they devoted to reports and commentary condemning these American heroes.
From all of us in Marine Corps families to all loyal Americans: "Semper Fidelis."
You can imagine what we'd say to the rest of you.
Despite the animals of the anti-American left who would crucify our men and women in uniform to gain political advantage, we still have red-blooded American men and women willing to volunteer to serve, even in the face of these stupid prosecutions, like the ones the Navy Seals now face, even in the face of a commander of chief who obviously has no business anywhere near the White House.
Lest we forget, thanks to the U.S. Marine Corps and others serving in the United States military, the Iraqis were liberated from a ruthless, mass murdering dictator, and today they are building their country into an island of freedom and democracy in the Middle East, the central goal of the Bush Doctrine concerning Iraq, now accomplished, no thanks to the anti-war crowd in this country.
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Comments
Thanks for the typos, I found them now you can fix them.
We may never know exactly what happened. Though it is painfully clear the marines were guilty of gross neglect and misjudgment, if not murder. War is no excuse to slaughter civilians.
Murtha is a great American who made great sacrifices for this country, your shabby and disrespectful treatment of this hero warrants apology.
Your madness is glaring.
Claiming we may never know what happened, you are nonetheless willing to condemn these Marines? On what basis? By what measure? You are indeed insane.
Now you shame yourself beyond the point of no return. Your assignment: grab a dictionary, stand in front of a mirror, and look up the word "reprobate."
No matter what your politics, or your ideas on how or whether to support American troops in Asia, your perception of what is occurring in Iraq is very strange, indeed. To say that American troops have saved the people of Iraq from a bloody handed, violent regime is simply to refuse to see what is in front of you. While Saddam was, indeed, a bad man, he at least had some modicum of control over the country. What the situation in Iraq, today, is, is chaos, cubed. What is happening today is as violent as Saddam's government ever was. However, it is absolutely unconstrained by any control of a social nature. Everyone is busy killing everyone. You
can't tell the players without a scorecard. I am reminded of a movie. I don't remember the name. One character said to another"This is Beirut, you don't kill who you want, you kill who you can." So, regardless of politics, exactly what improvement have the American troops wrought in 8+ years of occupation of Iraq? Examine that.
Joseph Reilly:
"Modicum?!" So, you assert Saddam has some "small portion" of control over the country. Yes indeed. Abu Gharib was his prison. The rape rooms were certainly a form of control. The hundreds of thousands of dead in mass graves attest to his "small portion" of control. Not to mention the Mukhabarat.
Simply a "bad" man? Please.
Is it true most of the Arab world is ruled by despots and without heavy-handed tyrants pressing down the population with "small portions" of control, there tends to be degrees of chaos and killing, as you note, Lebanon. Gaza certainly isn't a seaside resort, and please, you cannot blame the Israelis for what Hamas has done to the Palestinians there. The Iraqis have a long intellectual tradition, and if any middle eastern country has a shot at freedom and democracy, its Iraq. Of course there is always the possibility Iranian influence with jack them into an Islamic theocracy. We can only hope. Bush said it was a gamble.
PS: Back in '84 I developed a friendship with Dijla and his family. They had fled Iraq fearing Saddam. They knew what he would bring. As minority Christians, they feared for their lives. Of course matters are difficult today, but they are improving, and we would be wise to applaud their efforts and support their work toward freedom and democracy. So to answer your question, yes, we liberated 25 million Iraqis, restored their oil resources to them, and we are helping them achieve progress today. How long did it take to rebuild Europe and Japan after WWII? A little optimism and focus on the highest good would go a long way...
Whoops
Obviously, you read Time magazine and believe everything in it. Stupid you. Murtha's Vietnam buddies are disrespectfully turning over in their graves...they would be embarrased by this egotistical, narcissistic sack of crap. I wouldn't trust him with the life of my dog.
Kill them all, they're iraqi's. Who cares?
"no thanks to the anti-war crowd in this country."
Your welcome, dipshit. There's a reason the US doesn't invade countries. I'm not sure your capable of understanding why. Here's something you can understand, read the name, that's your label. I wrote it so you won't have to think.
Cheers.
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