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June 1, 2006 
As a pollywog, it doesn’t take long before you learn to keep your mouth shut.
I had just left the bus at Basic Training. I was next in line for the barber chair watching the guys in front of me –some of whom had that rock star length hair– get it buzzed right off. When I sat in the chair, I expected the barber to just buzz my head like he had done to all of the other recruits who went before me.
He paused, cocked his head from one side to the other all the while eyeballing my hair as if trying to determine how much to take off. He looked at me and smiled and to my surprise he said “Did you want to keep your sideburns?” I thought for a moment and then figured this guy is a civilian, so he won’t mess with me. He seems pretty cool. I answered “Sure”.
He then began the haircut. Zip, zip, zip and it was over. He pulled off the white bib that covers the “victim” and as I stood up, he said “Here you go” and handed me my sideburns.
“To the rear… MARCH!!” is an old military expression. Besides being a drill instruction, it is a term used by enlisted men to express a strong desire not to volunteer for something and to indicate they would be at the back of the line, wherever that may be.
In case anyone has been on planet Mars, there was what was alleged to have been an ambush with a roadside bomb attack and a firefight involving a US Marine convoy in Haditha, Iraq on November, 19th, 2005. The bomb killed Lance Corporal Miguel Terrazas. According to initial reports, the alleged incident also killed 15 civilians and 8 terrorists. This week, everyone from a TIME Magazine reporter to the Iraqi Prime Minister are calling it revenge, a crime, a massacre. No charges have yet been filed.
As if that weren’t enough, President Bush himself has probably increased the numbers of men headed to the back of that line I spoke of earlier, with his admission that he is relying on news reports to get his information regarding this incident.
Not one ounce of support. Not one suggestion that we shouldn’t rush to judgment. No urging of restraint until all of the facts are known. He just turned his back on them. Kicked them when they were down. Right square in the giblets. The remarks by the President were completely lacking respect for the military. Unmitigated chutzpah. A severe lapse of judgment. O.J. Simpson even had attorneys publicly arguing on his behalf that no one should rush to judgment.
The alleged incident is still under investigation, and yet people are tossing around expressions such as “murder charges” as if they were condoms on the quarterdeck during liberty. Like John Murtha, a “distinguished” member of Congress and a former Marine himself whom I couldn’t believe actually called this incident “cold-blooded murder” by US Marines.
Common criminals get more respect than that Mr. Murtha. You obviously have some sort of hidden agenda and I doubt it’s the best interests of the US Marine Corps.
Why is it that every time an allegation of US massacres of civilians surfaces, that a damn Democrat in Congress gives it legs?
