The investigation into the killings at Haditha is still underway, but the most recent hints don’t look good.  There are rumors of a field cover up, and of conflicting reports.

Sen Murtha has taken this as his latest complaint about the war in Iraq:

Murtha on Hardball: Troops “Killed Civilians”, Agrees With My Lai Comparison

Rep. John Murtha appeared on Hardball this evening and made an obscene claim, he said that our Marines “killed civilians” in Iraq. This remark was followed by yet another reprehensible statement; Chris Matthews questioned if what Murtha was talking about like My Lai, to which the Congressman said that was “exactly it”.

CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Let me ask you Mr. Murtha to give us some details about that. Draw us a picture of what happened at Haditha.

REP. JOHN “JACK” MURTHA: Well, I’ll tell you exactly what happened. One Marine was killed and the Marines just said we’re going to take care – we don’t know who the enemy is, the pressure was too much on them, so they went into houses and they actually killed civilians. And, and –

MATTHEWS:—was this My Lai? Was this a case of – when you say cold blood Congressman, a lot of people think you’re basically saying you got some civilians sitting in a room around a field and they’re executed.

MURTA: That’s exactly it.

He is not the first to accuse the military of attrocities.  Remember thet John Kerry has already taken us down that road.

But Murtha was relating an actual investigation into actual events, not speculation and rhetoric, as Kerry was.  What bothered me was that Murtha had made this into a done deal, not an investigation.  Sister Toldjah had this to say when Murtha first ran the story:

Does Rep. John Murtha know something we don’t?

Rep. John Murtha, infamous for his call in the fall of 2005 for a US military immediate withdrawal from Iraq, claims to know - prior to the completion of a military investigation - that US Marines in Haditha, Iraq on Nov. 19 “killed innocent civilians in cold blood”:

Rep. John Murtha, an influential Pennsylvania lawmaker and outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, said today Marines had “killed innocent civilians in cold blood” after allegedly responding to a roadside bomb ambush that killed a Marine during a patrol in Haditha, Iraq, Nov. 19.

Is it right for Murtha to make these statements prior to the investigation into them being completed?

I think she nailed the fairness question perfectly.  If the matter is under investigation, let them investigate.  Using this to call for immediate withdrawal is premature.

Michelle Malkin has a great piece on the latest news in this case, which of course is from anonymous leaks.

The details are all still preliminary, but it is looking grim, and some Marines may have seriously dishonored themselves and their country with their actions.  And they will pay the price, the military is adept at self policing.

But the larger question remains.  Should this be another sign that we need to withdraw from Iraq and go home, because we are now just too dangerous.

I think the obvious answer is no.  Senator Murtha is disappointing in this regard because he knows that in time of war, not only do innocents die when our men make mistakes, sometimes those innocents are killed by deliberate acts.  Atrocities they are called, and I cannot think of an armed conflict in history where they did not happen, or a country that has not had some of its partisans commit them.

Without in anyway trivializing this event, or brutality of this nature in general, should the accusations be true, the fact is that it was bound to happen.  We all knew it.  The Iraqis are now able to see the difference between our type of government and Saddam’s.

In ours, the brutality is investigated, and those responsible punished.  Saddam gave medals.

Murtha has used this to promote his ideology, and his outrage is manufactured to take tragedy and twist it to his use.  He initially made presumptions and assumed the facts before the investigation was complete.   I don’t care if he is right or not, I care that he was more willing to condemn his fellow soldiers then he was to seek a fair investigation.

So now let the investigation complete, and let those accused stand trial as necessary.

But Jack Murtha, know that in your zeal to "prove" we are rotten, you actually proved our greatness:  That we actually care about accusations that our people have committed atrocities, and we intend to do something about it.