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Charges dropped, immunity granted: Haditha Marine turns state’s evidence
Allahpundit
It’s Sgt. Sanick De La Cruz, who had been charged with one count of premeditated murder and now isn’t charged with anything. According to a WaPo article from January, De La Cruz wasn’t even part of the house-clearing team led by Frank Wuterich that killed most of the Iraqis that day. He was with a separate team that entered houses on the north side of the road and arrested several Iraqis without incident. Which makes me wonder if that murder charge against him wasn’t filed as leverage for precisely this sort of deal.
You’re well advised to revisit this post, which highlights the more damning accusations leveled by De La Cruz against Wuterich, including/especially that he gunned down the Iraqi men from the taxi in cold blood and then urinated on one of the bodies. ...
Hating Bush is not a foreign policy
Lorie Byrd (H/T: LB)
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - "Hate is not a family value” is a popular bumper sticker slogan many liberals have proudly displayed on their vehicles alongside Gore/Lieberman and Kerry/Edwards stickers.
The slogan is a statement on family values voters who were branded haters during the Clinton years for taking a stands (ala Dan Quayle) such as that two parents were better than one, and later for being against intern canoodling.
Because the family values issue has taken a backseat to national security, it is about time for a new slogan. “Hate is not a foreign policy” is my suggestion for the perfect bumper sticker leading up to the 2008 election.
For well over three years now, we have heard Democrats tell us everything that is wrong with President Bush’s policy in Iraq, with many of the criticisms falling under the other popular liberal bumper sticker phrase, “Bush lied, people died.”
At first, we heard the president lied about Iraq posing an “imminent threat,” despite the fact that in his 2003 State of the Union speech he said we could no longer wait until a threat became imminent.
We later heard (and will soon see via Hollywood production) claims that the president lied about Saddam’s efforts to obtain yellowcake uranium, even though British intelligence still stands behind a report saying just that.
For several years, most Democrats' "policy" on Iraq consisted of hatred for whatever policy George Bush supported. Over the past couple of years, though, that "policy" has evolved from hatred of Bush and any policy he suggested to a call for withdrawal before the mission is complete. Most recently, Democrats passed a bill that would only fund the troops if a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq was included.
To put it in bumper sticker language, the policy went from "hate" to "retreat." Hate is not a foreign policy, and retreat is not a plan for success. ...
