Impeach John Murtha

John Murtha made a claim today about some alleged atrocities by US marines in Iraq last November 19 in Haditha. One wonders why he made the charge. There are several possible explanations. The facts as we know them are as follows. A group of soldiers (Kilo Company 3d Battalian from Camp Pendleton) was either attacked (as told by the military) or not (as described by at least one Iraqui rights group) and the soldiers responded to the attack. In the course of the attack several civilians were killed. According to several sources the incident is under investigation by the Naval Crimminal Investigative Service (which is the appropriate agency for this) and joint force command. Murtha claims that the original reports significantly understated the casualties and that the soldiers were not responding to a hot situation. Murtha claims “There was no firefight. There was no [bomb] that killed those innocent people,” He also claims that there were twice as many civilians claimed as the military report suggests. Those are all very serious charges. So what would motivate Murtha to conclude that he should make public allegations at this time when he knows the military is investigating the allegations?

#1 - He believes the charges to be true. With his military experience he should know how the UCMJ works. Making these kinds of charges public with the big splash that he gave it in a number of venues including Hardball - he knows that this press will compromise any legitimate investigation by the military. The best way to proceed in this case, if he believes the charges to be true would be to go to a command officer and inquire discreetly about the charges. That does not mean the Secretary of Defense - if indeed he thinks terribly of Mr. Rumsfeld. But he is supposedly well connected to the military so he must have some contacts. That method would not compromise the investigation and at the same time it would afford the accused their due rights. After a reasonable amount of time, if the Army were completely unresponsive, then he would have the opportunity to make his case more publically. But there is no evidence that he considered this course. This allegation stems from an article in Time - so it seems that his sources are the public press. As we found in the Koran in the toilet episode the media has been remarkably unreliable in this kind of reporting. Army Times and a number of the military blog sites have covered the facts about this issue in great detail.

By the way, under the UCMJ, if an officer fails to follow up on something like that, the officer is also eligible for prosecution under the UCMJ. Murtha should know that. I am sure he does.

#2 - The only other possible explanation is that he sees this as a way to undermine the president/Secretary of Defense. One would hope that would not be an explanation but the increasing stridency by Representative Murtha argues that the baser political motive is more realistic.

In either case Murtha has undermined the US efforts in the Middle East in the middle of a war. That is a gross dereliction of his responsibility as a congressman. If the charges are true, the Navy should proceed with finding and prosecuting those that commited the crimes (and indeed that seems to be exactly what the Navy is doing - investigating whether the charges are true) - but with Murtha's outburst the investigation could well be compromised. The end result there is again to undermine the efforts of the US. A couple of the military bloggers have suggested that he be censured. That is the wrong punishment for his act. He should be impeached.