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When Will Murtha Apologize?

7:36 PM, Jun 6, 2008 • By BRIAN FAUGHNAN
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Yesterday Lieutenant Andrew Grayson became the sixth U.S. soldier exonerated of any wrongdoing in an incident at Haditha in 2005. Grayson is the first Marine tried for his alleged transgressions; two others will face trial later this year:

Eight military personnel were originally charged over the incident--four soldiers faced murder charges and four officers, including Grayson, were accused of covering up and failing to properly investigate the killings.

However, since charges were first announced in December 2006, prosecutors have struggled to make the allegations stick.

Six have now had charges against them dropped, while charges of murder against squad leader Frank Wuterich were changed to the lesser offense of manslaughter.

House Chairman John Murtha (D-PA) -- himself an ex-Marine -- was quick to find the accused guilty when these accusations first came to light. As Joe Eule points out, Murtha initially said that troops had "overreacted because of the pressure on them." He later had this exchange with Chris Matthews:

MATTHEWS: Was this My Lai? Was this a case of--when you say cold-blooded Congressman, a lot of people think you're basically saying you got some civilians sitting in a room around a field and they're executed

MURTHA: That's exactly it.

So far it's at least six servicemen slandered by Murtha, without an apology. He seems to be holding out hope that at least one American soldier is found guilty of being a cold-blooded killer.

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