Exonerated Marine vs Ex Marine

Via Instapundit:

Exonerated Marine to sue Rep. Murtha

One of the Marines cleared in the killings of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha plans to sue his congressman today for statements he says defamed him and other members of his squad.

Former Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 24, of Canonsburg, will file a civil lawsuit against U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, who was widely quoted two years ago saying that eight Marines carried out a cold-blooded killing of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town on Nov. 19, 2005.

Charges were later dropped against all but one of the Marines, with a military prosecutor calling allegations against Mr. Sharratt "incredible."

If you've never read Lieutenant General Mattis' letter to Sharrat, you should take a moment to do so here.

Marine/Vietnam veteran Bing West , in his book The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq offers a recap of Murtha's attack on the young Marines:

On May 17, 2006, a bombastic politician rushed before the the cameras on Capitol Hill to accuse Marines of cold blooded murder in Haditha, unleashing a torrent of scurrilous speculation by a hyperbolic press. A panel of foreign policy experts ranked the 2006 Samarra mosque bombing as the worst setback in the Iraq War. Haditha ranked as the second worst. Al Qaeda was responsible for Samarra; the press and politicians, sacrificing balance for sensationalism, were responsible for distorting and deliberately exaggerating Haditha.
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"They killed innocent civilians in cold blood. They actually went into the houses and killed women and children," Murtha thundered. "But I will not excuse murder. And this is what happened. There' no question in my mind about it."

As a leading advocate for an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, Murtha advanced his own agenda by acting as judge and jury. Instead of cautioning restraint, other politicians opposed to the war attested to Murtha's credibility. "What I know is here is a guy who served our country," Senator Barack Obama said. "I would never second-guess John Murtha... he's somebody who knows of which he speaks."

Murtha typified the type of politician the mainstream press ordinarily despised - a man who flouted his power, cut backroom deals, and inserted earmarks into appropriations bills that funneled hundreds of milions to special interests, while receiving campaign contributions from those interests that ensured his reelection and and perpetuated pork barrel politics. Murtha abused his office as chairman of the Defense Subcommittee on Appropriations by slipping into the 2009 defense bill $176 million in earmarks - a record in the House. Instead of excoriating Murtha for sleazy politics, the mainstream press deified him because it suited their purposes.

Schoomaker argued that it was important to win in Iraq. Most people he had met out in the country, he said, wanted to see it through. It was important to succeed.

Murtha launched into a diatribe against the president and the Iraq war. You can be as enthusiastic about the war as you want, he said, but we simply don't have the troops to sustain it for much longer. Public opinion was strongly against the war. How could the president ignore the American people? This is a democracy, Murtha insisted, pounding the table, waving a copy of the Constitution in the air and claiming that Bush had become a "dictator."

Schoomaker suggested that if Murtha thought the president's approval rating was low, he ought to take a look at recent polls. You'll find that the military is the institution that people have the most confidence in, followed by police and firefighters, then organized religion, he said. All these were above or near 50 percent approval. The president was down in the 30s, and Congress was in the 20s or lower. "Congress is even lower than the president, Schoomaker said.

"This meeting's over!" Murtha shouted, red faced and angry as hell.

Schoomaker left quietly.

You can find the original story on that second video here.

In the interest of fairness and impartiality, I should also note that Murtha's opponent in the November election is William Russell.

Congressman Murtha has an opponent. A man who is himself a decorated Iraq war veteran. A man who was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. A man who has spent nearly 3 decades serving his country in uniform. Lt. Col. William Russell (USAR ret.) is challenging John Murtha – holding him accountable for his words and actions against our U.S. Marines. His web site, russellbrigade.com, takes you into the Pentagon during the events of 9-11. It also gives the people of southwestern Pennsylvania a real vision for economic growth and principled leadership while reminding us of the shame of Mr. Murtha’s unbelievable accusations. The best way to ensure that the Haditha Marines get their full measure of justice is to help the man who so vehemently and falsely accused them into retirement this November. William Russell is planning to do just that.