by Jayme Evans

Will They Ever Apologize?
June 15, 2008 11:08 AM EST

On June 4th, 2008, yet another ace was yanked from the house of cards that laid foundation of the government's case against eight Marines for their actions relating to a terrorist ambush in Haditha, Iraq in November of 2005.

Although that deck was completely stacked against them and reshuffled repeatedly, five of eight Marines have had their charges dismissed and First Lieutenant Andrew Grayson has faced court martial and was rightly found not guilty on all counts.

From the beginning, Grayson has remained adamant of his innocence. Having conducted three interviews thus far with Haditha Marines, their families or counsel, I always believed these eight men were innocent victims of a political witch hunt and for all but one who took immunity, their decision to stand and fight was not only the correct one, but it further demonstrated their innocence. If guilty, they could have simply rolled over and copped pleas, but that was unacceptable to these men. They want their names cleared.

The outcome of Grayson's case and the recent finding by Colonel Steven Folsom --the judge in Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani's case-- that undue command influence was a factor in the decision to prosecute Chessani means that his case will likely have to start from the beginning. This leaves Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the squad leader of the ambushed Marines and Chessani, the commanding officer of 3rd Battalion, as the last two defendants in a politicized case that should have been tossed just as quickly as John Murtha from office when he labeled them murderers and obstructionists.

I made several observations about this case when news of the Haditha incident first became public.
First, that this was but one in a series of asymmetrical attacks on the US military, with small arms, an I.E.D and most importantly, propaganda.
Second that this case was distinguished from other cases against US forces, because these men were being engaged.
And thirdly, that the case of Andrew Grayson was itself different than that of the other Haditha defendants due to his tangential involvement; that the suggestion he tried to fraudulently separate was ludicrous.

All of those predictions have thus far proven to be true.

Grayson was an intelligence officer. He was not present during the ambush and his actions in the aftermath were entirely consistent with his orders, training and experience. It appears to anyone but the casual observer that the decision to prosecute Grayson was more about anger and suspicion arising from misinterpretation of what they perceived to be his lack of cooperation than his active participation in a coverup of civilian massacres.

As an intelligence officer, Grayson had a bounty on his head. As a result, he was instructed not to sign his name to anything. Even this was interpreted dishonesty and contributed to the decision to prosecute him. Specifically in Grayson's case, his superiors laid out two conflicting sets of orders: those which dictatwe that all US Marines are to report violations of the Laws of Armed Conflict and those which dictate that Marines are not allowed to die or let their fellow Marines die in combat.

The US Marine Corps failed Andrew Grayson miserably on that account. He did not fail them.

They failed to recognize the conflicting orders or the problems they would pose. As with all the Marines involved in the ambush that day, they faulted him because --in their judgment-- he held the orders to protect himself and his fellow Marines in higher regard than the LOAC.

While they expect all Marines to effectively balance the competing goals of accomplishing their objectives while simultaneously protecting fellow Marines and civilians, the leadership failed to understand that in Grayson's case, many of his orders were in direct conflict with each other. They interpreted his refusal to violate one order as dishonesty and obstruction in covering up the violation of another.

Due to their own incompetence, the Corps also failed to place Grayson on any kind of legal hold. There were no restrictions on him when he separated. He was advised by counsel throughout his entire separation process and was under no legal or moral obligation to say or do anything to put or keep himself on legal hold. He was advised to comply with all directives and not pull rank in order to be separated and he did; yet the fact that the military screwed up further infuriated someone and contributed to the decision to not only prosecute this Marine, but separate him from his civilian counsel for his perceived obstinance.

Despite what Tim McGirk, John Murtha and al Jazeera might say, this whole sorry episode was nothing more than an ambush of Marines from behind civilians, the terrorists knowing full well that the Marines would dismount to neutralize the threat. Terrorists bear the blame for those civilian deaths, but Tim McGirk's distortions and sensationalism privided by Sunni propagandists influenced the public, influenced the media, influenced the Marine Corps and even influenced Congress.

Every single time a Democrat such as former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Dennis Kucinich or John Murtha labels Haditha a massacre or murder; every single time they link it with the frat house shenanigans at Abu Ghraib; it is a slap in the face to these eight men.

To this day, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), has the audacity to keep on his website allegations of war crimes and cover-ups committed against civilians in Haditha with no evidence to substantiate it. Navigating through Kucinich's site and clicking on the more link attached to his lies retrieves a document that was never published. The questions for the people of Ohio's 10th district are why? Why is their cowardly representative still spreading vicious lies? And why are you not holding him accountable? John Murtha made one statement, yet Kucinich still maintains the guilt of these men.

To the relief of Andrew Grayson, his family and the small handful of supporters these men have, his long nightmare is coming to a close. I didn't say it's over because it isn't. Frank Wuterich has already brought a libel action against John Murtha for his public condemnation and each one of these men will have to decide for themselves when this particular fight is over. Many of their families are now broke because of the high costs of defending them.

One thing is clear: resignations and perhaps prison cells are in order for those who allowed this to happen. We can never fix the wrongs committed against these Marines, but the very least we could do is give them a nationwide public apology, legal costs, lost compensation and damages and to see to it that *****s such as John Murtha and Dennis Kucinich who sell slander to their constituents in return for votes pay for their wickedness and those who consider following on their footsteps think twice.

The indelible stain that the Haditha incident will leave upon the US Marine Corps and indeed the country is not from the actions of our heroic Marines. It is not from the deaths of innocent civilians, the terrorists who ambushed our Marines bear that responsibility. It is from the rush to judgment; it is from one of the Marines' own --a sitting congressman-- telling the world that he heard from the highest echelons of the Marine Corps that Frank Wuterich's squad committed cold-blooded murder and four officers covered it up. That single, treasonous statement has inflicted more damage to our military than terrorists ever could.

Ellie