The military has long been known as a very tight knit organization, a family, a Band of Brothers (and Sisters), and no group more so than the United States Marine Corps. They say you are never an ex-Marine only a former-Marine. Well if anyone has stretched that courtesy far beyond decency and perhaps past it's breaking point it is Rep. John Murtha, who once served as a Marine but most recently has taken up stabbing them in the back.

There was a widely reported incident in Haditha, Iraq where it was claimed a massacre was perpetrated by a group of Marines. There were widely conflicting stories regarding the situation, with the Marines claiming they were reacting to fire and the Iraqis claiming it was murder. I have studied this incident widely and based on my experience there is only one standard that determines whether the Marines were justified in taking the actions they did.

Did they believe they were taking fire from the buildings they assaulted? If they believed it, then it doesn't matter whether they actually were. There are accounts from others in the village that men in black clothes exited the very buildings that were attacked. Once a determination was made that they were taking fire and to conduct a dynamic assault, then the Marines have a policy for how that is done, and from what I have read these Marines followed that policy. Rep. Murtha took it upon himself to take privileged information from an investigation that wasn't even finished and honor his Brothers in Arms by stating: "Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."

He not only calls them murderers, but he reads their minds and then diagnoses a systemic problem with troop deployments as well. This statement is reprehensible due to the irresponsibility of making a definitive statement based on a preliminary investigation, but also due to the stain Murtha puts on the Corps. The press and our enemies - well, I repeat myself - leapt upon this and used Murtha's absolute moral authority to proclaim Haditha a massacre and our troops pressured to the point of slaughter.

Sadly it looks like neither is true and that Murtha simply slandered better men than himself as the AP reports:  "The government version is unsupported by independent evidence," Ware wrote in an 18-page report. "To believe the government version of facts is to disregard clear and convincing evidence to the contrary."

Clear and convincing evidence to the contrary, eh? I assume we will now see Rep. Murtha all red-faced and outraged at the ignorant and disrespectful statements he has made. He needs to spend the same amount of energy he did railroading these Marines, in clearing their names. He also needs to re-learn that you cannot support the troops while simultaneously undermining their mission. We need our troops in al Anbar not Okinawa, and we need those who have lost faith in the troops and their mission to stop trying to lose the war for them.

You see Rep. Murtha, those poor troops and their leaders think they are winning. And we aren't going to let you change that in Congress.

I hope to deliver this message to Murtha in person on Sept. 17 and 18 when I will be in Washington for Troops on the Hill, an event sponsored by Vets for Freedom. Check their website for more info about this where we will inform Congress that voting for defeat when victory is still an option would be shameful.

No End but Victory.