The "Pendleton '8' K/3/5 - Hamdaniya" The Death of the Marine Corps?

The Death of the Marine Corps. Is it the Old Corps anymore? Is our Corps dead now?

Where is the Semper Fidelis that we were taught to uphold and believe in?

Imagine for a moment that you are a member of perhaps the proudest group of warriors the world has ever seen; a "band of brothers" that embodies the seemingly long-forgotten traits of honor, duty, and country. Every line of your uniform, from its gold buttons to the blood-red stripe down the pants leg, was earned in blood; each part of it was born in your history. Every time you put it on, you are reminded of those who have come before you, those who have made your heritage what it is. Your brotherhood, this nearly mythical bond, is signified by two words that somehow encompass everything you stand for. They are not just words, however, but a promise, a solemn commitment that will be kept even if it means you will die keeping it. Semper Fidelis: always faithful.

By your hand and the hand of your brothers-in-arms, the freedom of the United States of America stands. Your brothers have fought on every continent for over two hundred years, with a resolute courage and ferocity so incredible that even your enemies called you teufelhunden-devil dogs. There is not a better fighting force anywhere in the world, and being a part of it is the proudest thing you will ever accomplish.

You were sent to a faraway country, just like so many before you, and you did your duty the best you knew how. You sweated throughout the days and froze during the nights, sleeping in tents that were no protection against the mortars that deafened your ears and inched ever closer during the few moments of sleep you were allowed. You held the bloody hands of your friends as they died in front of you, some of them calling for their mothers, others whispering the bittersweet "Tell my wife…" Some of them didn't say anything at all, instead gurgling through their own blood as they died. Semper Fidelis.

You went without food, without sleep, without basic things like clean clothes and a shower. Through it all, you somehow managed to hang on to your sanity in a place where a lie is as commonplace as the truth, and the enemy just might be a 7-year-old child on the side of the road, smiling at you and asking for candy only so you will get close enough to him to be killed by the explosives he carries. No matter what the climate, the terror, the smells of blood and death or your buddy's guts that spilled out in front of him, you press on, determined to complete the mission. Many of your brothers have come back again and again to this place, unwilling to sit in a recliner in their living room and watch TV while you try to wipe the blood from your uniform and catch a few minutes of sleep before the next mission. No matter what the cost, you are all willing to pay it. Semper Fidelis.

Now imagine that you are sitting in an 8×8 cell, as are seven of your brothers, waiting to find out if your promise to remain faithful will in fact result in your death-not in a hail of enemy fire, not in the blinding explosion of a terrorist's bomb, but by the sterile needle of a lethal injection, administered by the very country you spent your adult life defending. You have been shackled, wearing a label that says "PVD": potentially violent and dangerous. You have been here for over a month now, in solitary confinement for almost 24 hours a day, with nothing to do but pray that someone stands up for you, just as you did for them.

But hope is dwindling. Your military attorneys don't have time to help you, and your civilian attorneys are being denied access to evidence that would prove you're innocent-no autopsy of the man they say you murdered in cold blood, no witnesses, nothing. In fact, you've just been told that you may be tried without ever facing your accusers in court-accusers who already have given conflicting stories and dishonest statements. Your life hangs in the balance, but the chances here are even worse than they were in Iraq. There is a very good chance that you will die, convicted of a crime you did not commit, betrayed by the very country you defend.

But this is just a story. This never actually happened, right?

Wrong. It's happening right now. At the moment I write this, eight men sit in solitary confinement, charged with crimes that never happened. Their case is explosive, their story heartbreaking. I don't believe any American, after hearing the facts of this case, can call it anything but a travesty of justice that may not only kill eight innocent men, but the idea of the United States Marine Corps as an honorable institution. I hope you read this series, yes. But I challenge you to act upon it.

The Innocent 8 fulfilled their vow. Now it is our turn. Semper Fidelis.

Note: The Innocent 8 - seven Marines and a Navy corpsman who are being held on charges of kidnapping and murder - are facing the death penalty, and are being denied due process and the right to a defense.

Birth of the Accusations

It began on 26 April, in Hamdaniya, Iraq. Seven Marines and their Navy Corpsman, from Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment shot and killed an insurgent. Just another day, just another insurgent in this dirty, dusty land where almost everyone-even children-can smile at you one moment and kill you the next.

But this would not be just another insurgent, and the events of 26 April will be dissected over and over in the coming weeks. The report the Marines filed after the action said that Awad was "digging on the side of the road from our ambush site. I made the call and engaged. He was pronounced dead at the scene with only a shovel and AK-47." Just another day.

Yet a few months later, the eight men are fighting for their lives in a whole new arena: the courtroom. With an Article 32 scheduled next month and most assuredly a trial after that, the Marines and Navy corpsman are accused of decidedly more than just engaging the enemy.

The charge sheets for the eight men claim a host of infractions: Murder, larceny, assault, housebreaking, kidnapping, false official statements, and obstruction of justice.

The Marine Corps says these men were looking for a certain insurgent but couldn't find him, and so they broke into Hashim Ibrahim Awad's house, dragged him outside, tied him up and put him on his knees, and then shot him 4 times.

There are some basic problems with the case. Dan Riehl has done some excellent research as to the conflicting statements by "witnesses."

He found that in almost every facet of the story, there are discrepancies, none of which are being mentioned by the media. In fact, in an apparent failure to communicate with each other (and fact check), "both Knight Ridder and the WaPo state the accounts cannot be independently confirmed."

[Speaking of that Knight-Ridder account, the entire article was reported on by a "special correspondent who could not be named for security reasons…" To give you an idea of what the Washington Post's article was like, just read these quick paragraphs on why they don't like to call Zarqawi a terrorist.]

Riehl goes on:

It is fair to conclude that the media is putting out information which has, by its own admission, not been confirmed. And the Bush administration is now extremely sensitive to these types of charges. It's also fair to wonder if some of our enemies haven't figured that out and are becoming increasingly proficient at circulating precisely the types of stories the MSM loves to seek out.

The Marine Corps, in choosing to prosecute these men, has decided to accept the word of Iraqis who were connected with the insurgency as opposed to their own Marines. This is and of itself is a tragedy. But why were these men charged?

Many people, including this columnist, somehow labor under the erroneous assumption that we as citizens are "owed" an investigation on this incident. It becomes a very dangerous situation when terrorists are made privy to this fact. How many inquiries were done into "atrocities" committed in World War 2? It was simply understood that war was a dirty job, someone had to do it, and thank God for the men who were willing to step up and go.

What happens when we are pounded with the idea that the military is a group of paid assassins, fighting an "illegal and immoral" war for capitalist fiends? Where do we end up when we start down the road of demanding investigations into killing of the enemy and calling normal wartime occurrences "atrocities?"

You may not even want to know the answer. But it is there, diabolically threatening everything that our country is founded on-and everything the Marine Corps claims to believe in.

The question of why they are even being investigated is a valid one, to be sure. But at this point, the more dangerous question is, why is the Marine Corps denying them due process and the right to a competent defense? And what does this mean for the rest of those who are defending our safety?

Denial of Honor Eight men stand charged in the death of an insurgent in Hamdaniya, Iraq. His family claims he was a harmless old, disabled man who refused to become an informant for the Americans. Considering the lack of value placed on truth in Iraqi culture, and the fact that the family stood to gain $2500 in American dollars if they claimed their relative was a noncombatant, a logical person would have a hard time believing the disjointed, conflicting statements by various members of the family.

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