Michael Reagan posts what I consider to be one of the finest pieces on Haditha written to date.

It may be simple in its explanations, but it is concise in its facts which is refreshing on its face:

You’d hardly know it if you relied on the mainstream media, but the government’s case against the Haditha Marines took another body blow last Friday that may be the beginning of the end for this whole sorry attempt to severely punish eight heroic United States Marines for doing what they are trained to do.

In a surprise development on the day Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum’s court martial was scheduled to begin, all charges against him were dropped without explanation.

I wonder however, if Time Magazine and Congressman Murtha have an answer to the question posed in the last paragraph of this piece:

And thanks to John Murtha and the liberal media, these Marines can now join my Dad’s wrongly accused Secretary of Labor Ray Donovan in asking where they go to get their reputations back.

I’ve often said politics and war do not make good bedfellows. When you add in a press ready and willing to paint our military in the worst of lights..well it is a true recipe for disaster.

As to where these young men go to regain their reputation I say only, it was lost only to those who refused to wait out the facts. There will be no apologies from the press or Congressman Murtha to be sure.

For those of us willing to believe that even our troops are innocent until proven guilty, there is no reputation to be regained.

There is simply gratitude that we have such men and women who are at the ready always to defend this country and sorrow that they and their families had to endure this ordeal at the hands of those who peddled their wares and political ambitions.