And the military may agree with him:
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood," a U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday.
From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children.
One young Iraqi girl said the Marines killed six members of her family, including her parents. “The Americans came into the room where my father was praying,” she said, “and shot him.”
On Wednesday, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said the accounts are true.
Military officials told NBC News that the Marine Corps' own evidence appears to show Murtha is right.
A videotape taken by an Iraqi showed the aftermath of the alleged attack: a blood-smeared bedroom floor and bits of what appear to be human flesh and bullet holes on the walls.
The video, obtained by Time magazine, was broadcast a day after town residents told The Associated Press that American troops entered homes on Nov. 19 and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a 3-year-old girl, after a roadside bomb killed a U.S. Marine.
This is obviously a most explosive allegation, but only an allegation if and until an investigation and/or court martial proceedings are undertaken, and substantive and credible evidence is found to exist that an atrocity did indeed occur at Haditha. None of this has happened, and therefore Murtha's accusation is unjustified, inappropriate and appalling.
Could Murtha really have the safety of the military in mind by uttering such allegations on national television, as he did today on Hardball? Does he not know that members of the American military, as well as civilians, are now immediately placed at a much higher risk because of his comments?
It is a sad thing to see that Murtha apparently places his agenda, and the Democratic party's, of further inflaming the "war fatigue" of the American people, and attempting to advance the Democratic party's prospects, above the overall safety of Americans in Iraq.
