Shackled American POW's in Camp Pendleton...guilty and humiliated before trial through the seemingly gleeful media

Still not charged with crime, sailor wears shackles
Lawyer says ‘cruel and unusual’ treatment is worse than what some alleged terrorists receive.

...Sullivan complained about reports circulated in the news media and in Washington about the actions of the unit, which have come amid allegations that Marines with another unit, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, may have killed 24 Iraqis, including children and women, in Hadithah last November. The men “are being tried on the five o’clock news, and that’s wrong,” he said.

The attorney believes that his client and the 3/5 men are getting hammered because of the ongoing 3/1 investigation. “There’s no question,” he said, noting comments made by senior leaders, including President Bush. “There’s a huge prejudicial effect,” he added...

Does it not seem at least possible to people that these marines may have been setup? Is it possible that these "innocents" were in fact assisting the terrorists somehow? These marines have been all but convicted and condemned in the media, and I'm not sure they've even been officially charged yet! No benefit of any doubt is being given...to the people that I think deserve it most.

Is Haditha a hoax?

Sweetness & Light has been all over it. The American Thinker follows up.

Murtha is again a disgrace (with ambition), and regardless of what comes out in this trial, I'm thoroughly outraged by the way that our Marines are being treated.

The wife of Sullivan's client has set up a website...here.

A letter from the attorney to Michael Savage, who has been screaming for better treatment of these heroes.

Oliver North writes in "Remember Baqubah -- the Left Won't"

Bakuba, in case you have already forgotten -- or never heard -- is where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, one of the most brutal terrorists in history, was tracked down and killed by Joint Task Force 145 -- a special air-sea-ground unit of the U.S. Special Operations Command. That was good news -- and, therefore, transitory. Haditha, on the other hand, is here to stay.

What did or didn't happen in Haditha, Iraq last November will remain a full-throttle topic for every "talk-jock" with a microphone for months to come. TV, radio, and newspaper pundits, armchair admirals, bar-room brigadiers and pontificating politicians are all openly opining on the fates of those involved. Most want you to remember the "horror" of "American crimes" in Haditha. Others purport to be "outraged" at the "mistreatment" of the U.S. personnel allegedly involved. Some politicians, like Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa., claim to "know" that Americans committed murder "in cold blood." None of them know what they are talking about because not one of them has seen the final reports of ongoing investigations.

The dissonant reporting and commentary about the two places -- Bakuba and Haditha -- reflects far more than a difference in what's "known" before you hear, see or read the "news" from each. From bloggers to broadcasters, few of today's "reporters," editors or news directors require two or more sources to corroborate a story. Journalists blame intense competition for ratings and circulation in a "24-hour news cycle" for "minor factual errors" and an "if it bleeds it leads" mentality. Politicians claim that they need to be "out front" on issues important to their constituents.

These are lame excuses for what's really going on -- and the Bakuba-Haditha stories are perfect examples of what's been happening in this war since the liberation of Baghdad. The critics of the Bush administration and those who seek political advantage in denigrating America's military have decided: Haditha -- like Abu Gharib -- is going to be beaten like a rented mule. Bakuba -- like the capture of Saddam outside of Tikrit -- will be "buried" like every other "good news" story coming from this war. And the Washington politicians are helping to make sure that happens.

Nathan Blake (a new favorite) writes in "Rousseau, Hobbes, and Haditha"

...The liberal approach to our soldiers is disgustingly condescending. Maureen Dowd explains that, "American troops are under spectacular emotional pressure." President Bush, not the murdering Marines, is the real culprit; he created the environment that drove them to atrocity. Is this illogic induced by political opportunism and an antipathy toward Bush that gladly embraces the irrational? Of course it is. But there are more fundamental influences involved as well. Consider the opening of Dowd’s column, "Before the war, America railed against the Iraqi leader for slaughtering innocent Iraqis. Now the Iraqi leader is railing against America for slaughtering innocent Iraqis."

Ms. Dowd, of course, is paid to put things out of perspective, but this view isn’t confined to the Times’ resident spinster. Many Americans are determined to prove that their nation is no better, and probably worse, than others. For them, the sins of America and Americans are enough for a declaration of moral equivalence. Now no sensible conservative denies that America has serious faults – it is populated with humans, after all. But then, that’s the point of difference.

For conservatives, who take a dour view of human nature, events like the Haditha massacre are inevitable, and the blame must rest on individuals. War crimes are entirely natural, if by natural we mean what people do. This does not make them right, and they should be punished severely, but no system shall ever entirely prevent them, for the problem lies within the human heart.

However, liberals believe that people are inherently good, and that in the state of nature humans would not do such things. The conservative view is that of Hobbes, the liberal view that of Rousseau. As the famous opening of The Social Contract put it, "Man is born free; and everywhere he is in chains." And his disciples have added, "Man is born good, but everywhere he is made bad."

Thus, when horrors such as Haditha arise, the blame must be affixed on social structures. And the denunciation takes on the aspects of a moral ablution, for by rejecting the corrupt system, liberalism’s moral purity is confirmed. We conservatives wonder at the lack of proportion liberals display by the vehemence of their condemnations, but it is entirely consistent with their premises. Atrocities demonstrate the system to be flawed, and because an ideal system is possible, they need not temper their criticisms...

...For liberals, the institutions and leaders behind the war, not the men behind the trigger, must bear the blame for Haditha.

These Marines deserve to be treated with respect, and must be assumed innocent until proven guilty. This is horrendous.

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