[antimedia] antimedia: Bruce Kesler, who is close to the action, ....

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Posted by antimedia:
Bruce Kesler, who is close to the action,....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1177173238.shtml


   ....is doing [1]a bang-up job of covering the latest developments in
   the Haditha case. If you're not reading Democracy Project, add it to
   your list of daily reads.
   I want to focus on a couple of areas in his most recent report.

     Aside from the immunity granted to one of the previously charged
     Marines, discussed here, and previously here and here with respect
     to the entire case, itâs now been revealed that another 7 Marines
     have been granted immunity.

   So a total of 8 Marines have now been granted immunity including an
   officer who was at the scene. It's beginning to look to me like the
   government is desperate to convict Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich so they
   can claim a "victory", no matter how tainted.
   If so, the government should be ashamed of themselves. They have now
   granted immunity to the officer who ordered Wuterich to assault the
   Iraqi homes from which the enemy was firing.

     However, not all the Haditha immunity deals are guaranteed to boost
     the prosecution's chances. The testimony of Lt. William T. Kallop,
     the sole officer at the killing scene, could support defendants'
     contention that they were following lawful orders.
     Kallop reached the Haditha site minutes after the roadside bomb
     went off, according to military reports. In testimony given later
     to investigators, he said the squad leader, Staff Sgt. Frank D.
     Wuterich, and another Marine heard gunfire coming from a nearby
     house.
     Kallop told the investigators that he ordered Wuterich and the
     other men in his platoon to âtake the house.â
     âI'm convinced that we did nothing wrong,â Kallop is quoted as
     saying in documents The Washington Post obtained from anonymous
     sources.
     The Marines also killed people in two other homes and a nearby
     vehicle.

   So they've granted immunity to Kallop even though he ordered the
   assault and even though he will back up his Marines.
   What's left? There can't be anything left except a politically
   motivated, cover-your-ass prosecution from REMFs who have never taken
   fire and never killed the enemy and couldn't tell incoming from a
   backfire.

     The standards for reporting incidents involving civilians have been
     increased since. By some critics telling, that requires in midst of
     action reporting comparable to full after action police reports in
     domestic cases, creating in effect another restraint on aggressive
     responses to attack. This may be justified by the exigencies of
     guerrilla warfare, to avoid alienating population. But others
     experienced see it as possibly overshadowing the primary way to
     squelch it â death to attackers â and as harmful to morale and
     outside the reasonable bounds of military training and capacity.

   That's what our military has come to. Send highly-trained men into war
   and ask them to do an extremely stressful and difficult job after
   which some jerk in Washington with a law degree will search day and
   night and micro-analyze for any opening to prosecute the troops
   involved and alter the ROE so that our men are now fighting with both
   hands tied behind their backs. And all to satisfy some namby-pamby,
   pussified liberal notion that we should fight "kinder, gentler" wars
   where no civilian is ever caught in our crossfire no matter how much
   the enemy peeks out from behind their skirts to kill our men.
   A pox on all of them.

References

   1. http://www.democracy-project.com/archives/003262.html