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Dan Bartlett, White House counselor to President Bush recently said that press reports of U.S. Marines killing civilians in Haditha, Iraq, “are unsettling for the American people.”
Unsettling?
UnSETTling!?
You seem like a fine man, Mr Bartlett. But, please, don't speak for us. What's unsettling to many of us is how The Commander-in-Chief gloats when "his" Marines, his Army, and his Air Force do so amazingly well, but when something goes wrong, the President and and the Secretary of Defense suddenly seem to go AWOL from their military.
What's unsettling, Mr Bartlett, is this feeling we have in the pit of our stomachs that our President cares more what effete Internationalists may think of vague "reports" and charges made, and probably made-up by our enemy, than he cares about those under his command.
Many of us are old enough to remember how it went in the Viet Nam era, and most of us are smart enough to have figured out that our enemies lie, contrive and kill their own people in order to make the US look bad, knowing America's Leftist Media - let's call it what it is; our Marxist Media - will magnify any possible misdeeds of our military because, when you get down to the nitty gritty... our Marxist Media despises the military. But only the mighty US military.
What's unsettling, Mr Bartlett, is that President Bush, Sec'y Rumsfeld and the rest of our "leaders" also know all the above and yet... they tap dance under the spotlight, with pathetic responses such as if any of our military have committed crimes they will be brought to justice. As if it's all black-and-white, cut-and-dry... our military did what you sent them there to do, Mr Rumsfeld, maybe a little too well for your stomach, so let's hang 'em out to dry and try 'em so you and your boss can continue to grovel for the Internationalist intellectuals, so you can get on with being sophisticated leaders of the free world.
Are you trying to tell us, Mr Bartlett, that the Commander-in-Chief and the Secretary of Defense of The United States of America can't demand their own fighting men be given every benefit of every doubt (and believe me there are many doubts) and not be treated worse than captured enemy combatants, even before they are formally charged with anything!? No. What do they do? The President and Sec'y of Defense don't seem to want to get their lily white hands dirty, so they turn a blind eye to their own troops. This is condemnation by silence. They allow their Marines, honorable men who have served two and even three tours in Iraq and elesewhere, to be incarcerated. Put in shackles! While the enemy, down in Gitmo, is treated like some special holy person with his special holy needs. And you wonder why our mid-level officers don't re-up, Mr Bartlett? They are more worried about being destroyed by their own military justice than they are about the enemy! Do you blame them, Mr Bartlett?
What's unsettling, Mr Bartlett, is that we feel that our President and Secretary of Defense don't seem to have the cajones to tell Congressman Murtha and his ilk what they can do with their anti-military speeches.
Now let me unsettle you, Mr Bartlett. Some of us Americans don't give a damn what happened in Haditha, or Abu Graib for that matter. We know our enemies bomb innocent men, women and children, then run home and hide behind their own women and children, pretending to be Ozzie and Harriet. In my book that makes them all complicit in any treachery their men have done, just like the VC in 'Nam. That's what terrorist "insurrectionists" do! If our men made some mistakes there, so what! It's a war! Helll-o! If you're not going to have the guts to stand behind your military when they do the dirty work YOU sent them there to do, well then admit that underneath all that blue serge you're wearing there lies a little bit of yellow, and get your men out of harm's way. Don't sit there like John Kerry, acting surprised, like you thought you were sending them on a Boy Scout jamboree.
What's unsettling, Mr Bartlett, is that it seems our President and the Secretary of Defense have drawn their guns, cocked the hammers, taken aim, and have now become too soccer-mom'd to pull the goddamn trigger... instead hiding behind the apron of "the military code of justice." Maybe our President should sit in the Oval Office and seek some courage from ol' Harry Truman. Harry would have called into the oval office the Marine Commandant who seems hell-bent on condemning these men, and he would have torn him a new one. By that afternoon, the Marines who were going to be convenient sacrificial goats would have received medals of honor and been recognized as the heroes they are.
Unsettled, Mr Bartlett?
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