Oops, did I say General Hagee?
Being a grandstanding publicity hound is not without its trials and tribulations. Especially trials.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. Marine Corps briefed Rep. John Murtha on the Haditha case after the vocal war critic publicly said Marines had killed innocent civilians in that Iraqi city, the Corps said on Thursday.A group of Marines, while suspected in the killing of 24 Iraqi civilians, has not been charged, and official results from the military’s investigation remain outstanding. A U.S. defense official said on Wednesday, however that evidence indicates Marines deliberately shot to death unarmed civilians.
Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, is being sued by one of the accused Marines for libel. He had told The Philadelphia Inquirer that Gen. Michael Hagee had given him the information on which he based his charge that Marines killed innocent civilians.
But a spokesman for the Marine Corps said Hagee briefed Murtha on May 24 about Haditha. Murtha had made comments on the case as early as May 17.
On May 17, for example, he said at a news conference, “Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.”
A spokeswoman for Murtha was not immediately available.
Those pesky spokeswomen are never around when you need them. Maybe one of them could have explained how it is possible to cold bloodedly overreact to pressure. Is it something like a having a premeditated accident?
Posted on August 17th, 2006 by pwyll
Filed under: politics
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Good point.
But, this Murtha incident is indicative, in my view, of the destructive polarization of Washington politics. Senator Joseph Lieberman’s recent primary defeat is a good example of the fact that centrist, gentlemanly (and gentlewomanly) politics in D.C. is almost dead.
And that, my friends, is a very dangerous state of affairs.