The Washington Post’s Josh White begins his article on Haditha today:
A sergeant who led a squad of Marines during the incident in Haditha, Iraq, that left as many as 24 civilians dead said his unit did not intentionally target any civilians, followed military rules of engagement and never tried to cover up the shootings, his attorney said.Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, 26, told his attorney that several civilians were killed Nov. 19 when his squad went after insurgents who were firing at them from inside a house. The Marine said there was no vengeful massacre, but he described a house-to-house hunt that went tragically awry in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.
“It will forever be his position that everything they did that day was following their rules of engagement and to protect the lives of Marines,” said Neal A. Puckett, who represents Wuterich in the ongoing investigations into the incident. “He’s really upset that people believe that he and his Marines are even capable of intentionally killing innocent civilians.”
White goes on to call Wuterich’s version “detailed.” The sergeant was in the convoy that was hit by the roadside bomb that started the incident.
Reading through Wuterich’s account, as written in the Post article, it is clear civilians were killed and, shall we say, rather assertive rules of engagement followed; but is also clear that this was no My Lai Massacre – despite what a fair percentage of the press would have us believe – not even close. These Marines were being fired on from inside a house just after one of them had been killed by an IED. They were acting from deeply within the fog of war, but criminally? I doubt it.
So why the Rush to Judgment on our men? Time Magazine has been blindly milking the situation much in the way Newsweek jumped at the bogus Koran/toilet story that resulted in deaths world wide. And before then there have been numerous instances of the press believing the most propagandistic versions of the truth – perhaps most notoriously the fake Mohammed Al-Dura photo that helped instigate Intifada II. Of course that was promulgated by France 2, not the US press (though hardly ever contradicted by it), but everybody seems to have bought into this supposed act of cruelty without questioning – and it was only a couple of days ago.
So what is the explanation for this knee-jerk anti-military behavior? Is it treason? That I also doubt. No class has more to gain in power and money by the continued success of American society than the men and women in our media. For the most part, they live extraordinarily cushy lives of glamour and comfort without even having to face the electoral judgment that politicians do. No, we are in the realm where psychology (narcissism) meets finance (material advancement). For people to change their minds, to open up to the reality that we are no longer in the world of 1968, takes considerable strength of character, as Neo-neocon has shown us. But it takes even more strength when your check is being paid by multi-millionaire ownership so deeply mired in that world view that not even a lifetime in an Iranian prison could alter it.
UPDATE: Hewitt on Murtha’s role.
PJM Home
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
24 Comments
1. AlanC:Roger,
I have to disagree with your “No class has more to gain in power and money by the continued success of American society …”
While that may be true the implication that the media know and understand this is a leap. These people act as though they believe that they are destined to be the elite in any society.
They act as though they are activly seeking to undermine our current system for one that recognises their “specialness”.
They write and act as though their ideal system is that of an unelected oligarchy in which they are senior members of the ruling class. They would love the EUssr in all its non-democratic, bureaucratic authoritarianism.
Is this treason? Maybe not, but it IS anti-Americanism by way of the fifth column.
Jun 11, 2006 - 11:21 am 2. David Thomson:ìIs it treason? That I also doubt.î
It is not a conscious form of treason. Many within the journalistic community are ìinternationalists.î These individuals feel very little loyalty to the United States. They adhere to an allegedly higher calling—a commitment to a new world order. We Americans should feel inferior. After all, our government and culture is not modeled after the more enlightened nations of the European Union.
ìNo class has more to gain in power and money by the continued success of American society than the men and women in our media. For the most part, they live extraordinarily cushy lives of glamour and comfort without even having to face the electoral judgment that politicians do.î
These folks are shallowly educated and read just enough to get into trouble. To be blunt, the typical journalist is an idiot. And no, Iím not even slightly exaggerating. They simply put their wet finger into the air and see which way the leftist zeitgeist is blowing. They are vastly overpaid. Iím appalled to realize that the high percentage of them ìearnî a minimum of $80,000 annually.
Jun 11, 2006 - 11:59 am 3. meander:After reading the Hugh Hewitt link, this thought occurred to me…”I wonder if the marines can sue Cong. Murtha for slander or damage to their reputation should the charges he has gone public with prove to be false?” I would think it is entirely possible they could take him to civil court. Wouldn’t that be a fun turn about of events!
Jun 11, 2006 - 12:01 pm 4. TomTom:To Alan and David: Roger that!
Jun 11, 2006 - 12:38 pm 5. Terrye:Most journalists, in my personal experience, are dumber than pigs. They are remarkably ignorant, remarkably arrogant, impossible to edify. And as a political force they wield extraordinary power. The combination profoundly endangers the survival of American democracy.
As Will Rogers said, jestingly, in the ’20s or ’30s, “All I know is what I read in the papers, and what I read is what I wrote myself.”
I think the reasons the media does these kinds of things… are a combination of group think and good old fashioned stupidity. They also see themselves as dragon slayers, with the US Marines playing the part of the dragon. They won’t be taken in like the rubes watching Nazcar, nope not them. They are onto our government. They will not let the neocons get in their heads. Nosireee.
This kind of mindset makes them blind to their own prejudice.
Jun 11, 2006 - 12:51 pm 6. David Thomson:ìMost journalists, in my personal experience, are dumber than pigs. They are remarkably ignorant, remarkably arrogant, impossible to edify.î
This is why so many of them are scared for their future. In the very recent past, they acquired an unofficial tenure after working only a few years for their employer. Now many of them are increasingly forced to find a new line of work. And Iím not talking about kids in their mid twenties! A high number are middle aged adults. I suspect that on a gut level this is one of the reasons why they are so hostile towards the Bush administration. Subconsciously, these journalists may illogically believe that a more liberal political order may save them economically.
Jun 11, 2006 - 1:02 pm 7. ic:It reminds me of ten thousand dead, hundreds of women and babies raped in New Orleans. The MSM congratulated themselves for a job well done, and condemned Bush for incompetence.
Jun 11, 2006 - 1:37 pm 8. Tim:Treason?
An open mind should be open to the idea that it just might be.
Regardless of whether it is or isn’t treason, it certainly is about the narrative or, if you prefer, the template.
The U.S. goes to war in a third-world country half a world away to protect itself and/or its interests based upon a certain set of facts; those facts, while never completely disproved, are sufficiently doubtful and the war sufficiently long that the motive for the war must surely be bad, our enemies and indigenous peoples innocent victims if not patriots in their own right, the war unwinnable, our troops made war criminals by the unlimited hostility to their presence and our leadership impeachable, regardless of any other consideration. Throw in institutional and cultural antipathy at a minimum to outright hatred for the military, aggressive foreign and defense policies and Republicans, and the narrative and/or template is complete. Add keyboard, printing press, and television camera and the process is complete.
Treason? At some point surely those actions are not only possible, but definitively so. Are they there yet? I’m not sure if they are, but I’m not sure they care. Which means eventually they most likely will be. Let’s hope it happens when the stakes aren’t high.
Jun 11, 2006 - 6:29 pm 9. Bill Faith:Great analysis, Roger. I linked from
Jun 11, 2006 - 6:31 pm 10. tioedong:“Haditha: Signal to Noise” (Updated)
what is worse is that CNNI and BBC stress US atrocities.
Jun 11, 2006 - 10:36 pm 11. heather:And last weekend’s Manila Bulletin’s NYTimes supplement had a full editorial condemning the “massacre”…
The Bulletin is the most conservative of local papers…
so what you have is that people hear the original story repeated many times, then don’t hear the whispered retraction.
Like the Kartrina myth, it is used to fuel anti Americanism by those with other agendas.
The Press Conferences on CSpan have taught me that yep, the “Media” are dumber than pigs. But, given that pigs are quite smart, maybe we should go down the line a bit. I vote for goats. Have you ever looked into the eyes of a goat? Flat, absolutely flat.
In the one about Zarqawi’s death, with some Officer in Iraq, one of the “Media” brains asked (very aggressively, and a couple of times), if Zarqawi had died from a bullet hole in the brain. Nice, eh? (And who did he think would do such a thing: one of those Yankee slaughterers running amuck again?) And then there were the bunch of questions on whether or not Zarqawi had survived after the blast, how long, how many minutes, and did he say anything, what did he say, etc. Oh, and had that head photo been photoshopped, had any plastic surgery been done to make the corpse more acceptable. Truly. These shows are quite something.
I am betting that Haditha will be another Jenin.
Jun 11, 2006 - 11:07 pm 12. Terrye:Tim:
I don’t buy the fact that the reasons are doubtful, these people just do not want to hear them. They are too busy bashing Bush to read the Joint Resolution passed by Congress giving the president authority to used the armed forces in Iraq. They might also find it useful to read the Iraq Liberation Act penned by William Jefferson Clinton and while they are at it, there is the Deulfer Report as well as old news reports concering the flight of terrorists (such as Yasin who helped carry out the first World Trade Center attack in ‘93) to Iraq back in the 90’s. There is also the cease fire agreement with Iraq back in 91 which Saddam violated and numerous other bits of information that might help clear things up for you.
The amazing thing to me is how much more willing some people are to give the Butcher of Baghdad the benefit of the doubt than they are the US Marines. Tells you more about them then the Marines.
Jun 12, 2006 - 4:07 am 13. Tim:Terrye:
You and I don’t disagree – all I’m saying is that because there were no stockpiles of ready-to-go nukes found in Iraq the reason for going to war within the media narrative was now doubtful – notwithstanding the facts, just as I believe the facts generally supported US involvement in the Vietnamese war.
The thing to remember here is that unless the reason for going to war was absolutely clear-cut and then validated by evidence after the fact – in short, if it was the perfect war fought perfectly – the media’s near-treasonous support for the enemy’s propaganda efforts would likely never had come about. At least for now.
But like a want-to-be adulterer who hasn’t cheated on his wife yet because his advances on other women have been turned down, that doesn’t mean the media class cannot, will not or isn’t willing to commit treason when they believe it appropriate or “best.”
Jun 12, 2006 - 5:12 am 14. Larry J:Last week, a man was arrested on suspicion of murdering 7 people. He happened to be black. If anyone were to use that story to claim that all blacks were tainted in any way by that crime, he would rightfully be called a racist. However, the Press and Democrats like Murtha feel so similar restraint in tainting the military for the alleged acts of a few. Since our military has people of all races and creeds, you can’t exactly call the Press and Murtha racists for making such wild accusations. It isn’t hard to say that they’re anti-military and largely anti-American.
Jun 12, 2006 - 5:59 am 15. Tom M:One of the things that made the Haditha stories more plausible than the usual media hype of bad news was the fact that it appears that reporters were being given leaks on the story from military sources that usually wouldn’t comment. As was reported at the time, these appeared to be a kind of attempt to soften the blow by having it come out over a period of time rather than all at once.
Usually I discount all MSM reports of atrocities since they are so badly sourced. But this one caught my attention because of the people who were talking about it. I won’t give the MSM any credit, but neither will I blame all of the pundits who were and are taking the issue seriously.
Jun 12, 2006 - 6:55 am 16. Foobarista:My own take on the media:
1. They can’t imagine the possibility of defeat. For them, the mental model of defeat in war is – wait for it – Vietnam, where the only real “winner” in American society was the media and the left, and the consequences of the defeat were primarily felt “over there”, by those abandoned to the mercies of leftist heroes like Ho Chi Minh.
2. They are internationalists as mentioned above. They are far more emotionally connected to bien-pensant types in Europe than poor whites or blacks in the US.
3. I’m not so sure they are traitors, but given that they can’t imagine real consequences to themselves for defeat, they do want Bush to lose. They’d rather see the US defeated and Bush’s policy go down in flames than see the US win and Bush hailed in history.
Jun 12, 2006 - 11:48 am 17. Steven Mitchell:Most of the people in the media aren’t smart enough to be traitors. They can be traitorous if the stars align, but that’s an accident. And Heather is correct. Some of you may owe pigs an apology.
Jun 12, 2006 - 1:24 pm 18. Herbert92X:Hey, here’s something your rocket scientists may have overlooked: Maybe the Marine who told this story is lying! I mean, gee, no one who could possible be implicated in a massacre or is seeing his friends implicated could possibly lie about something like that could they? nannn..No one in the military ever lies.
Jun 12, 2006 - 6:05 pm 19. John Moore ( Useful Fools ):Roger, we need a term for the treason that is not treason – that which we see so much these days.
There is a very precise definition of treason in our constitution, and it requires “adhering to the enemy” among other things.
What we are seeing does not meet that definition, but it is, nonetheless, treason or something damn close to it. The leaders of the MSM have been acting in a treasonous manner for many years, and are just getting worse.
An article in Commentary defined “pragmatic anti-Americanism” and “fundamendalist anti-Americanism.” (It also showed how anti-Americanism has roots very close to anti-Semitism). While the article is mostly defining attitudes of non-Americans, it’s clear that our MSM and others on the left fit the “fundamendalist anti-Americans” category.
They are an enemy among us, even though they don’t often work with our primary enemy (unlike some in the Vietnam War era, including John Kerry who personally collaborated with our enemy). We need to start asking if these people have gone so far beyond the pale and that we should look to terminate their treacherous activities by some means. When do we decide that they have gone past the limits of our civilization and our civil liberties protections, into the realm of active enemy of all America stands for?
But we still need a term. The left now uses “swift-boating” to characterize actions by those they can’t refute (I sent a congratulatory note to John O’Neill).
We need a powerful phrase to describe those Americans who are enemies of America.
While we can analyze their motives and recognize these arrogant bastards as “internationalist,” that observation fails to excuse their arrogance and the damage they cause; nor does it stop them.
I think anyone who values America rather than internationalist utopianism (i.e. Europhilia) has to recognize that these people are as dangerous, although not as brutal, as the jihadis.
………..
What do you call people who publish leaks of highly classified information, knowing this will damage their own country’s war efforts?
What do you call people who constantly, intentionally and with substantial skill create propaganda which obviously helps our enemy in a war where propaganda is so important?
What do you call people who wish to re-create the successful anti-American result they achieved in Vietnam, something which the enemy could not achieve by force of arms?
What do you call people who knowingly and repeatedly endanger their fellow citizens, especially our fine military volunteers?
What do you call people who constantly hold the unelected bureaucrat leaker above the properly elected members of government and their appointees?
What simple phrase can we bestow upon these creatures who do not deserve the freedoms they endanger?
“enemy” is accurate, but not sufficient. Ideas?
…a side note…
Murtha is going to find out that the Vietnam Vets who went after John Kerry for his slanders are not going to let the same thing happen to the veterans of the Iraq war – at least not without a fight.
Jun 12, 2006 - 11:30 pm 20. AlanC:Mr. Moore,
I respectfully offer…..
“Nattering, Nabobs of Negativism”
as a descriptor for these (can’t call them people) worms. ;^)
Jun 13, 2006 - 5:14 am 21. Steven Mitchell:John, “Intellectual Cockroaches” maybe?
They are certainly resilient in the face of continued slams. Did Jenin make them hesitate a bit this time? Shine some light on them, and watch them run under the floorboards until tomorrow night.
Herbert: “Maybe the Marine who told this story is lying!”
Sure. We are withholding judgement on the actual events, pending the investigation. OTOH, it’s already apparent that the press is not withholding judgement. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the problem there–merely someone outside the “reality-based community”.
PS, Marines have a much greater track record for truthfulness than the press, especially in regards to military events. See my answer to John Moore above.
Jun 13, 2006 - 8:22 am 22. Herbert92X:Steve,
The people posting here as well as the host of this blog are most certainly NOT witholding judgment. Calling this another Jenin, citing the word of a lawyer for a possible murder suspect as scripture are hardly witholding judgment. Yes, I am willing to withhold judgment before calling anyone a murderer, but let’s face it the facts here aren’t pretty. Several people have been relieved of their duty, the Marines changed their story and even some of the people involved can’t get their stories straight. Even a Repulican, John Kline, thinks that people involved in the killings were covering things up.
PS. The military’s record for truth telling is atrocious.
Jun 13, 2006 - 8:32 am 23. Steven Mitchell:Herbert, just curious, so you admit that the press lied like there was no tomorrow over Jenin? How you would you rank their conduct there, compared to your view of the “atrocious” military?
As for rushing to judgement, there may very well be some real fire behind the smoke of Haditha. I have the queasy feeling even now that there is. So no rushing to judgement on what the military did. OTOH, the press has been caught fanning the flames and running the smoke machines yet again. So yes, I ‘m rushing to judgement on *them*–with good reason. Even if some of the Marines are guilty, the press is still guilty of another Jenin. They aren’t mutually exclusive, you know.
Jun 13, 2006 - 9:33 am 24. Bostonian:“The people posting here as well as the host of this blog are most certainly NOT witholding judgment. Calling this another Jenin, citing the word of a lawyer for a possible murder suspect as scripture are hardly witholding judgment.”
Herbert,
The problem with Jenin wasn’t that the press was wrong. The problem with Jenin was that the press acted as if facts don’t matter, just as they are doing now.
We have a presumption of innocence in our society, and the press does not apply this when our military is concerned. Neither does the Left. Thank you for illustrating that, by the way.
Jun 13, 2006 - 11:01 am