Redstate

but he's been in the forefront of defending soldiers in general and certainly Sharratt.

he did the right thing for so many wrong reasons. The man hates everyone.

That never happened ?

I can't imagine happening. < / snark >
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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

the Duke case. With the Dems playing the role of the Duke faculty members led by Murtha.

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Vista really sucks!

to sour public opinion. There have been so many I have lost count, but Jack Murtha certainly rode the Haditha deception...well, to the majority if not leadership. This would make a tremendous book and make it difficult for the Left to lie about what they did, as happened for decades after Vietnam.

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CongressCritter™: Never have so few felt like they were owed so much by so many for so little.

I believe those Marines did their jobs and were falsely accused as probably others were. In Vietnam Marines/Soldiers took fire from Vietcong, civilian militia firing from their homes. If they got others killed in the cross fire well I guess that was to bad but it wasn't murder. So what's the difference here? These slimey liberal democratic panty wastes will do or say anything to show that we shouldn't be in Iraq, including filing charges against innocent Marines/Soldiers. The Haditha incident stemmed from charges by an Iraqi and evidence gathered that was months old and yet this travesty continued instead of just being dropped. Guess we should now cut off ties with Pakistan because their military killed innocent civilians when they attacked the Red Mosque! I'm really surprised some democrat congressman or senator hasn't already suggested it. Dont get me wrong, these slimey democrats I spoke of are not just the one's in Washington, they wear uniforms too and know that someday they will be civilians and in the private employment sector. Wouldn't that make a nice addition to a resume, " I prosecuted innocent Marines and Soldiers just for doing their jobs". Cant say I'd be very proud of that.

Although I am aware that it is unusual to override a such a recommendation I imagine that it is still a possibility due to "political" pressures. Anyone guessing on the odds of an override?

Well done is better than well said. —Benjamin Franklin

After a training exercise at the Combat in Cities area in Berlin, we were waiting for transportation back to McNair Barracks. One of the old-timers, a veteran of WWII and Korea, seemed "out of it." When asked what was his problem, he told the following story:

I was in Italy during WWII, fighting my way up the boot. For some reason, the divisional commander thought that my company was better at house-to-house combat than the other companies in the division. When the division approached a cluster of farmhouses or a small village, the division commander would send trucks to pick up my company so that we could use our "expertize" in clearing the houses.

One day, we were taken off the line, placed on trucks and driven to another part of the division area where there were six or seven houses at a wide spot in the road. The houses were occupied by a German unit serving as a rear guard and our mission was to force them out of the houses so that the division could continue the advance.

(I am omiting some technical and organizational discussion about how his company prepared to assault the houses)

When we were ready, the machine guns and mortars opened up and my partner and I, as the assault team, rushed the first house. Whn we reached the side of the house, we each threw a grenade through a window. When the grenades went off, we entered through the windows with our Thompsons blazing. As the buildings were two stories, we rushed the stairwell and lobbed two more grenades onto the upper floor. Then, like Audie Murphy in To Hell and Back, we went from room to room, clearing out the upper floor.

With that floor secure, we went downstairs and cleared the front of the house and entered the rear room. It was the kitchen and, as we entered, we spotted a trapdoor in the floor. On our bellies, we approached the trapdoor. My partner hooked the muzzle of his Thompson over the door's handle while I armed two grenades. When I was ready, he lifted up the trapdoor and I tossed the grenades into the cellar. As the trapdoor fell, we heard a woman scream.

After the grenades went off, we opened the trapdoor and saw a Italian family, all were wounded and some were dying. We called for the medics and the family was evacuated to the nearest aid station. The CO told my partner and I to take a break and the 1st Sgt gave each of us a shot of whiskey.

After a while, our platoon leader came and said that it was again our platoon's turn to clear out a house. He said that, if we were not up to it, two other men from the platoon had volunteered to do the job. My partner and I still felt lousy about the incident but we were the best at clearing houses and the volunteers did not have our skill. We told the platoon leader that we were ready.

We cleared that last house and, entering the kitchen, found another trapdoor. Without a seconds hesitation, my partner flipped up the trap and I tossed two grenades into the cellar.

The WWII veteran looked at us and said " I had promised my mother that I would return. I had not promised any Italian anything."

In war, things happen. No matter how many safeguards are in place, things happen. The Germans were pretty good about removing civilians from the combat area and most Italian civilians did not need to be told to find a safe place when combt was imminent but, for some unknown reason, that Italian family snuck back into their house and took refuge in the cellar. The WWII veteran, in 1962, was still upset about what had happened but, under the same circumstances, would still toss grenades into the cellar.