The right-wing Noise Machine is in full froth over allegations that Marines murdered civilians last November in Haditha, Iraq. Time magazine broke the news in March, but the story faded away, just another bloody episode in the recurring bad dream of Iraq.
But the story exploded again in mid-May when Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA), himself a decorated Marine Vietnam veteran, declared, “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.” We’ve since learned that the Pentagon still is investigating the incident and possible cover-up. We also learned that President Bush, the commander-in-chief and “decider”, learned of Haditha about the same time we did – from Time.
The Noise Machine has launched it’s usual shotgun counterattack, branding Murtha, who first supported the war but now calls for a staged withdrawal U.S. forces., as a traitor, and attacking the “left-wing, anti-war, Bush-hating” press.
Here’s an example of the counterattack from Dennis Prager, a second-string right-wing noisemaker from Salem Radio Network. To “make” his “point,” Prager reads from a excellent first-hand account of the Haditha Marine unit by CNN’s Arwa Damon.
”Both Ways” Prager (mp3, 3:10)
If you listened – and your head didn’t explode – here’s the answer to Prager’s rhetorical question about Time’s Iraq photos:
It seems almost silly to point out that Prager has it both ways: He cites a CNN account that adds (sympathetic) perspective to the Haditha incident to justify his claim that “the media are sickening … because of the lack of perspective…” Sickening, indeed.
Speaking of having it both ways, Prager and his fellow right-wing noisemakers regularly excoriate the press for focusing on the blood and gore and neglecting the “good news” from Iraq . But, when they defend the Haditha Marines, suddenly Iraq is a horrific land populated by “those who want to slit the throats of innocents.”
History teaches us that putting soldiers in a strange land to battle an enemy they can’t identify in a war with uncertain objectives is a recipe for defeat and disaster. American colonists taught the British and Hessians that lesson. The Soviets learned the lesson in Afghanistan. Murtha learned that lesson first-hand in Vietnam. He deserves respect for his valor and attention for his insight, not character assassination from chuckle-headed right-wing chickenhawks.
Our experience with the Vietnam War also proved that you can’t defend a flawed policy and failed war by attacking the messengers. Prager, his fellow pro-Iraq War noisemakers, and the Bush administration never learned that lesson -- and history is repeating itself.
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