Article

2007-08-10 Iraq

2 Marines' Charges Dropped in Haditha Deaths

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Posted by lotp 2007-08-10 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top
File under: Iraqi Insurgency

#1 Geez, another RoE and lawyers-in-warzone incident. But this one is costing a young man's integrity and future opportunity. I just pray that he reconciles his life and pursues "life, liberty and happiness". As for the DoD and the Marines, please get the lawyers out of the battlefield and war plans and allow our military to operate at peak killing efficiency. I wonder if AQ and the insurgents and the Talibunnies have lawyers on their side? If so, its an even fight. If not, we are in big trouble.

Posted by Jack is Back!">Jack is Back! 2007-08-10 06:35|| 2007-08-10 06:35|| Front Page Top

#2 But...how can this be. I declared him guilty!

Another coverup by the BushitlerCheneyHalliburton gang!

Posted by Rep. Jack Murtha 2007-08-10 06:46|| 2007-08-10 06:46|| Front Page Top

#3 I wonder if AQ and the insurgents and the Talibunnies have lawyers on their side?

"We're on it!"
You're local chapter of the ACLU

Posted by eLarson 2007-08-10 07:58|| http://larsonian.blogspot.com]">[http://larsonian.blogspot.com] 2007-08-10 07:58|| Front Page Top

#4 Now clear the rest of 'em, apologize and move on.

Posted by DarthVader">DarthVader 2007-08-10 09:08|| 2007-08-10 09:08|| Front Page Top

#5 Jack Murtha is waiting for your call.
202-225-2065

Posted by doc 2007-08-10 09:27|| 2007-08-10 09:27|| Front Page Top

#6 Good deal. This whole thing was a cluster f@ck.

Posted by JohnQC 2007-08-10 10:36|| 2007-08-10 10:36|| Front Page Top

#7 They should all get a few "freebies" anyway. It must be very confusing over there.

Posted by bigjim-ky 2007-08-10 11:07|| 2007-08-10 11:07|| Front Page Top

#8 More of General Mattis's words from the Navy Times:

Sharratt, he wrote, has served as a Marine infantryman in Iraq where our nation is fighting a shadowy enemy who hides among the innocent people, does not comply with any aspect of the law of war, and routinely targets and intentionally draws fire toward civilians.

The challenges of this combat environment put extreme pressures on our Marines, Mattis wrote. Notwithstanding, operational, moral and legal imperatives demand that we Marines stay true to our own standards and maintain compliance with the law of war in this morally bruising environment.

With the dismissal of these charges, LCpl Sharratt may fairly conclude that he did his best to live up to the standards, followed by U.S. fighting men throughout our many wars, in the face of life or death decisions made in a matter of seconds in combat, Mattis added. And as he has always remained cloaked in the presumption of innocence, with this dismissal of charges, he remains in the eyes of the law and in my eyes innocent.

Mattis, in issuing his decisions, acknowledged the difficulties that infantrymen face in a combat zone, particularly in a counterinsurgency environment. The experience of combat is difficult to understand intellectually and very difficult to appreciate emotionally, he wrote, citing the writings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., an infantryman during the Civil War, who described war as an incommunicable experience.

Holmes, Mattis wrote, has also noted elsewhere that detached reflection cannot be demanded in the face of an uplifted knife. Marines have a well earned reputation for remaining cool in the face of enemies brandishing much more than knives. The brutal reality that Justice Holmes described is experienced each day in Iraq, where Marines willingly put themselves at great risk to protect innocent civilians.

Where the enemy disregards any attempt to comply with ethical norms of warfare, we exercise discipline and restraint to protect the innocent caught on the battlefield, he added. Our way is right, but it is also difficult.

Posted by Sherry">Sherry 2007-08-10 12:09|| 2007-08-10 12:09|| Front Page Top

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