Originally Posted by Chanda

He said they killed innocent civilians. Did they, or not?

Originally Posted by ADK_Forever

Not everything is as it seems, or is described...

First off, "all" the Marines involved were NOT found innocent! I believe charges against 6 were dropped, one was found not guilty and one may yet be charged with negligent homicide.

"Innocent until proven guilty" applies to the courts. Murtha was not "trying" them.

A court doesn't find anyone "innocent".

If believe Murtha was speaking on information he got from the Washington Post. I believe there was also a Time article on this.

3 things that must be true to win a defamation (slander) lawsuit are:
(1) a defamatory statement and
(2) published to third parties; and
(3) which the speaker or publisher knew or should have known was false.

# 1 and 2 may be true in this case but, if #3 isn't true then there is not defamation.

Murtha never mentioned Justin Sharratt by name.

I seem to remember watching an interview with one of those marines. I believe he admitted civilians were killed but, it was not intentional, that it was war. And war sucks!

In this article: US marine acquitted of war crimes in ground-breaking trial - Telegraph
it states: "The case came to light in 2006 when Weemer was interviewed for a job in the US Secret Service. In a lie-detector screening he was asked about the most serious crime he ever committed and disclosed details of the 2004 incident."

So, if Weemer's description sounds like a crime was committed to the Secret Service, and Murtha might have access to that recording,... then there will be no case against Murtha. He may have got off because a few of his Marine buddys refused to testify against him by taking the fifth.

Also, this site ( Haditha killings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ) has some more background. It states that military recommends Staff Sgt. Wuterich be tried for negligent homicide.

Can you put aside your understandable defense of the military for a minute and answer this? If those two Marines told you privately that this crime occurred and you watched and/or listened to the Secret Service recording which showed Weemer telling the story in his own words, and he described a crime occurring, would you then condemn Murtha for speaking the truth to 1) expose bad Marines and 2) illustrate what this wrongful war is causing over stressed Marines to do?

Think about it.

Originally Posted by Navy Pride

He called them murderers......

Originally Posted by Chanda

Understand this. Murtha didn't call anyone a murderer. He said they killed innocent civilians. Did he lie?

Originally Posted by Navy Pride

Originally Posted by Navy Pride

Before Murtha had any facts he called the Marines Murderers........Do you believe a person is innocent until proven guilty? Obviously Murtha does not.......

Originally Posted by Chanda

You are bonded with the architects and promoters of the Iraq war. If you were bonded with the troops, you would understand, as Murtha does, that these tragic incidents are the result of stress from daily ambushes and multiple deployments. Those who attack Murtha are yet again exploiting the troops to defect criticism from the war. The troops involved in the incident overreacted from stress and will forever be haunted by their own actions--not because of anything Murtha said.

Originally Posted by ADK_Forever

He had plenty of evidence when he made those comments.

Do you really think a "career Marine" would make such accusations without some evidence?

I don't believe all the facts are out on this issue yet.

Originally Posted by Chanda

That's a lie.

Originally Posted by Chanda

Your video is a lie. Murtha didn't call the troops "murderers." This is exactly what he said: "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

Did the troops kill innocent civilians (children, women and grandparents) in Haditha or not?