Haditha Hurrahs May Be Premature

From the beginning, I’ve been highly skeptical of the charges against the Marine squad involved in Haditha killings. At the least, the “evidence” highlighted in the media’s initial rush to judgment appeared clearly tainted or ambiguous. So far, this has been borne out by the Article 32 hearings, the hearing officers’ reports, and the decisions by LtGen Mattis to dismiss charges against several.

On the other hand, I’ve pointed out that the Marine Corps takes leadership responsibilities very seriously, that both the Marine Corps and LtGen Mattis lead in taking the “softer” side of counterinsurgency seriously in dealing with the local population, and some Marines in leadership positions may be more harshly judged for deemed failures of follow-up. Thus far, although I’d doubt that the charges against LtCol Chessani would survive a court martial, he is the sole Marine recommended to proceed to court martial. LtGen Mattis hasn’t yet decided.

In a similar vein, the hearing report hasn’t yet been issued for SSgt Wuterich, whether he is to be recommended to proceed to court martial.

The reason to suspend premature expectation that Chessani and Wuterich may not proceed to court martial is that LtGen Mattis was central to the action by the Department of the Navy to censure three senior officers for failure to quickly investigate the incident. Also, yesterday’s dismissal of charges against the company commander in return for immunity in testifying at others’ proceedings may indicate that more proceedings are to be expected.

Contrary to this speculation, however, these may only indicate that the Marine Corps and LtGen Mattis make a distinction between command reporting and investigation responsibilities and the battle itself, and make a distinction between the responsibilities of more senior and junior Marines, and demonstrate that Marine justice is clear headed and self-responsible.

In either case, the fact-finding integrity of the Marine Corps senior leadership is without question, compared to the spectacle of Congressman Murtha’s defamatory statements against all Marines involved at Haditha and his now refusal to even retrospectively recant or temper his extremist accusation.