Thursday, June 15, 2006

Check The Basement For Pods: Marine Corps Brass Becomes Dangerously PC

The Marine Corps leadership appears to have been taken over by politically correct reporters and representatives from CAIR. In two recent instances, they have betrayed the men who serve the Corps and given cause for Americans to distrust the leadership of military. It would be wise for the families of the soldiers involved in the Haditha case to begin to organize themselves now, if they haven't already, so that they might better protect their loved ones from the tender mercies of the military brass.

Both stories are summarized neatly at Power Line, and the first case is the more serious and distressing of the two. It involves charges that a group of eight soldiers in Hamandiya, Iraq killed a single Iraqi:

U.S. military investigators believe the killing of an Iraqi civilian on April 26 was planned by a small group of Marines who shot the man and then planted a shovel and an AK-47 rifle at the scene, a senior Pentagon official said Tuesday.

It is also reported here and here. On the surface, the story strains credulity. I am in complete agreement with John Hinderaker at Power Line:
I don't believe it. Seven Marines and a corpsman--not an unstable soldier or two--didn't find the terrorist they were looking for, so they randomly grabbed an innocent guy and shot him? It's possible that something bad happened here, but that story makes no sense, and unless and until I see the evidence, I simply don't believe it.

The most egregious aspect of the story is that the servicemen are being held in solitary confinement during the investigation. It is unsettling to know that their treatment is inferior to that of the terrorist at Guantanamo and their plight of less interest to the media than the suspects arrested in Canada several weeks ago.

The families of these servicemen have retained counsel and have set up websites here and here. Their case is investigated by Michelle Malkin and Dan Riehl, and it will sound depressingly familiar to those who have followed the Haditha case.

In the second case, a Marine wrote a song, "Hadji Girl", about being seduced by an Iraqi girl then ambushed by her family. Great violence ensues, all of which is the responsibility of the Iraqis who are trying to murder a Marine. Little Green Footballs has the video. Although the song has existed for a few months, it recently came to the attention of CAIR, which distributed a mendacious press release denouncing the song. The press release was picked up uncritically by a number of wire services, and its lies have now become canon. In an unseemly and contemptible indulgence of CAIR's lies, the Marines are searching for some way to punish this Marine.

Michelle Malkin, Little Green Footballs, and Black Five have an extensive discussions of the case, the origins of the controversy, and the uninspiring behavior of the Marine Corps. Malkin additionally compares this case to that of a Marine rapper who sang about similarly violent episodes in Iraq. The rapper has not been reprimanded, though the "Hadji Girl" singer appears likely to be. The difference between the two cases is obvious: the rapper is black, the "Hadji Girl" singer is white, a status that suits the stereotype of the crazy redneck Marine that is so conducive to CAIR's interests. It is not the rightness or wrongness of the act that piques CAIR's interests, but how well fomenting a controversy around the act will suit their long-term goals.

That the MSM aids and abets them is both disturbing and unsurprising, especially when the facts are available to anyone who is willing seek them out, in this case the lyrics of the song as posted at Black Five. I sometimes wonder if, in addition to being able to write, reporters also know how to read.

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