Al Qaida And Democrats - Haditha Co-Conspirators

Islamofascists routinely use women and children as human shields. Unfortunately the tactic works sometimes.

It is especially effective when Democrats and the mainstream media cooperate with the terrorists.

Innocents were killed at Haditha, as they inevitably are in all wars--though that does not excuse or justify wrongdoing. Yet neither was Haditha the atrocity or "massacre" that many assumed--though errors in judgment may well have been committed. And while some violent crimes have been visited on civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, overall the highly disciplined U.S. military has conducted itself in an exemplary fashion. When there have been aberrations, the services have typically held themselves accountable.

The same cannot be said of the political and media classes. Many, including Members of Congress, were looking for another moral bonfire to discredit the cause in Iraq, and they found a pretext in Haditha. The critics rushed to judgment; facts and evidence were discarded to fit the antiwar template.

Most despicably, they created and stoked a political atmosphere that exposes American soldiers in the line of duty, risking and often losing their lives, to criminal liability for the chaos of war. This is the deepest shame of Haditha, and the one for which apologies ought to be made.

A common cliche' reads that generals are always preparing for the last war. I think that we can also say that liberals are always trying to lose the last war. The My Lai massacre in Vietnam was a devastating blow to the American consciousness. John Murtha clearly hoped to accomplish the same thing with the Haditha Marines.