The alleged incident in Haditha, Iraq where our Marines are accused of slaughtering 24 innocent civilians is being likened by aged Vietnam era war protestors and their prodigy as the new My Lai Massacre. The incident still under investigation has taken on a life of its own among the anti any war that is not ours liberals to, once again, disparage our troops and America.

What exactly happened in Haditha after a terrorist IED tore a Marine apart is still quite unclear. In fact things get a little confusing about how innocent some of the victims might have been. In fact one of the survivors of the incident admitted to CNN that he knew there was a bomb and that it was going to explode. WALID (through translator): I was planning to go to school. I was about to get out of bed. I knew the bomb would explode, so I covered my ears. The bomb exploded. The bomb struck an armored vehicle. I don't know if it was a Humvee or an armored vehicle. When the bomb exploded, they came straight to our house.(1) How he and probably others know about the bomb if they were not involved or at least complicit is unclear. But like I said, the investigation is on going.

However that has not stopped people from jumping to conclusions.

It started with the blame America first liberals who are bound and determined to find any reason to oppose the United States, freedom for the Iraqi people, and confronting evil. Usually most of what they say is pure fantasy. Every now and again though they get just enough of a story right so that something looks like it will stick.

For them Haditha is a great opportunity and with people like Congressman John Murtha out there fueling the flames the screams are loud and shrill that the Marines are guilty, guilty, and more guilty with no ifs, ands or buts to be had. Their vigor is so extreme that if we could harness it we could power a small city. Its a typical knee jerk reaction from those that let their feelings control their actions. Haditha is a means to and end. What end? The end of proving that America is evil, the military is evil, taking care of dictators that violated cease fire agreements for twelve years is evil, George Bush is evil, and just for good measure that American is evil one more time.

This fury by the left has in turn spawned an equally extreme response by pro-American patriots completely fed up with how the left continually works against America. Theyre defending the American Marines and going well beyond the noble concept of innocent until proven guilty to the concept of the American Marines are innocent period!

And that is adding to the liberal feeding frenzy.

Its an understandable position however born from years of liberal attacks and a remembrance of how they engineered our defeat in Vietnam to save their Communist brethren from annihilation. But it is also unhelpful.

Then there are the rest of us. Weve deferred judgment to let the process play itself out because weve seen this rush to judgement from the left far too many times in the past. Jessie Macbeth anyone?

If the Marines are guilty we want a punishment that fits the crime they are guilty of. If the Marines are not guilty then they should be apologized to and thanked for their service. And maybe, if they are innocent, we should also allow them each to slug one liberal moonbat (currently stringing up the nooses) square in the nose.

But lost in all of this is a serious question. That question is for all the liberals getting the nooses ready for our Marines. Where is your compassion?

Weve gone through many years now at the behest of liberals to understand criminals in our society. During this time weve been forced to endure whining about how we cannot be too hard on criminals clearly guilty of crimes because, well, there has got to be extenuating circumstances that makes the crime not solely the fault of the criminal.

Child rapists are given light sentences because they were abused themselves as children and then sue when they are required to register so that people know they have moved into the neighborhood. Children that murder their parents generate hand wringing about how sad it is that now they must grow up without a mommy and daddy when they are the reason for that problem in the first place. Cop killers languish in jail and liberals rally outside the prison demanding them to be set free because somehow it was the fault of society. Mass murderers are not removed from society but instead given therapy because they are not considered evil but merely sick. And on and on and on the list grows in the name of understanding why they did what they did.

But if a group of soldiers in a war zone under attack by the enemy are found guilty of murder that is completely intolerable to you now? Again I ask, where is your compassion?

Are you so incensed with your own hatred for America that your would discard all the principles you have previously used when dealing with other criminals? Is your loathing towards this nation and our men and women in uniform so great?

Seriously, I expect more from the compassionate left. I at least expect you to give the same courtesy to our soldiers as you do to cop killers.

What happens if these soldiers are guilty and it is learned that one of the soldiers was abused as a child and another had and alcoholic mother? What if it is discovered that one grew up in poverty and another in foster care without his mom or dad? Would any of that change your mind?

Sources: (1) http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0605/30/pzn.01.html