The Adventures of Jesse and Jack

The modern Leftist is poorly educated, extremely gullible, and easily (mis)led.

Few other lessons are as starkly obvious as this conclusion from the Jesse MacBeth story. In such a situation it becomes difficult to discern who was the con man, who else was "in on it", and who were the conned, but clearly this week a large number of people were quite willingly duped by a third-rate phony. This is not the first time so many have been so taken in by so obvious a fraud. At some point they may wise up, but thus far like aging children at Christmas they "want to believe".

While the video has disappeared from it's original site, you can still read the words that introduced Jesse to the world:

There is a current story in the US press about a squad of Marines that are being investigated for "war crimes" after they murdered a whole Iraqi family one night a few months back. US officials are approaching this story as if this wasn't standard procedure, and are focusing on holding the individual Marines accountable. Jessie Macbeth blows the lid off that story.

Actually US officials have had no comment on the Marine story as yet - to do so could prejudice the case. But those words quoted above have spread - to the pro-terrorist uruknet, the Smirking Chimp (don't laugh - it's a popular "liberal" site) and to countless smaller blogs like The Left Coaster.

At that last site in particular, the obvious connection was made to this story:

Former U.S. colonel John Murtha acknowledged in his Pentagon report Wednesday on the Haditha incident in Iraq that the U.S. Marines 'killed innocent civilians in cold blood'.

Ironically - or perhaps not - the blogger chose to link the Xinhuanet version of the John Murtha story. From small blogs to Chinese news agencies, the stories spread globally.

Make no mistake about it - Jack Murtha's pronouncement of guilt in the case of the Marines (here's the al Jazeera coverage) set the stage for the viral spread and eager acclaim for Jesse MacBeth's video debut. This is not to say the congressman was involved in the con - he was quite busy accepting an award for his "courage" this week. But while they might not be "battle buddies" the symbiotic relationship between the ex-Marine and his admirers - as indicated in that original introduction to the MacBeth video fraud - is undeniable.

Nor would I imply the congressman is wrong. The honorable Mr Murtha was simply "getting ahead of the news cycle” as we say these days. In the military justice system investigations are conducted, preliminary hearings are held, and a decision is made whether a trial will follow. In the case of the Marines we are still in the investigation stage. But in courageously declaring their guilt at this point Mr Murtha has 1) perhaps duped those who weren’t paying attention into believing this is something he exposed, 2) ensured that the future news stories of the findings, the hearings, and the trials will include a mention of or quotes from congressman Jack Murtha, and 3) inspired a young Wendy's employee to make his mark on the world too.

So perhaps the congressman will comment on this:

Macbeth is a former US Army Ranger, who served in Iraq for 16 months before being wounded and ultimately discharged. His squad did night raids, using the same techniques the Marines are accused of, 4 or 5 times a night for many months. Macbeth, who is now a member of "Iraq Veterans Against the War," was interviewed for the public access TV show "Indymedia Presents."

In this interview Jessie describes killing children to make the parents talk. He describes one episode where his squad responded to the much-reported incident in Falluja where 4 US mercenaries were killed and hung from a bridge. Shortly after Iraqis killed the mercenaries, according to Macbeth, his squad of Rangers gunned down Iraqis praying inside a mosque on a holy day, then hung some of the bodies from rafters, and defaced the mosque with graffiti. Macbeth's hand held the smoking gun, and his testimony in this interview shows clearly that the Marines who are now in trouble for very similar actions are not the exception to US tactics in Iraq, but represent only one in many incidents of war crimes.

We now know that MacBeth was protesting coffee in Arizona at that time. And some of us knew at a glance that he was never a Ranger.

For some time I've been trying to come up with a more apt term for the now widely misused "liberal", and gullible seems an excellent choice. I fear they will get fooled again.

And again.

And again...