So, Sen. Biden, Care To Apologize To Those Haditha Marines … Huh?
Biden: Rumsfeld should step down
Democratic senator restates call, this time over Haditha killings
Sunday, June 4, 2006 - (CNN)
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should step down amid an investigation into whether U.S. troops covered up the suspected intentional killings of Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Sen. Joseph Biden said Sunday.
The Delaware senator is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a potential presidential candidate in 2008.
Military investigators strongly suspect that a small number of Marines snapped after one of their own was killed by a roadside bomb November 19 in Haditha, Iraq, and went on a rampage, sources with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.
The Marines originally reported that 15 civilians died in a roadside bombing that also killed one Marine. A later report suggested the civilian victims may have been caught in a firefight.
But senior Pentagon officials said last week that the investigation tends to support allegations that the Americans carried out an unprovoked massacre.
Pentagon sources have told CNN that 24 civilians were killed.
Biden told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the accountability for Haditha and other alleged atrocities in Iraq should go all the way up to Rumsfeld.
“We can’t get rid of the president; he’s there for two-and-a-half more years,” Biden said. “There is a system of accountability. … When you make serious mistakes, you step forward and you acknowledge them and you walk away.
“Presidents can’t and shouldn’t do that. Secretaries of defense can and should.”
Biden said Rumsfeld “should be be gone; he shouldn’t be in his office tomorrow morning.”
A frequent critic of the Bush administration’s policy in Iraq, Biden has previously called for Rumsfeld’s resignation.
Retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who led the 1st Infantry Division in northern Iraq in 2004-2005, on Sunday also called for “a secretary of defense whose instinct and judgment we all trust.”
Batiste told CNN’s “Late Edition” he sees “a direct link between Haditha, the national embarrassment of Abu Ghraib, going on four years now of uncontrollable chaos in Iraq, with the bad judgment, poor decisions of our secretary of defense back in late 2003 and 2004.”
“We went in under-resourced, overcommitted. And the strain on the force is unbelievable,” Batiste said.
Batiste was one of several retired generals to publicly call for Rumsfeld’s resignation in recent months. Responding to their calls, President Bush in April defended Rumsfeld, saying he was doing “a fine job.”
On Sunday, a Pentagon spokesman could not be reached for comment, but another retired general said there should not be a rush to judgment on Rumsfeld.
“It’s absolutely wrong in the face of Haditha, before you know what’s gone on, to call for the resignation of anybody,” said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd, now a CNN military analyst. “Put this in perspective. Do you fire the police chief every time one of his officers does something wrong? No.”
Two investigations into the Haditha incident are being conducted, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week. One focuses on the killings themselves, and the second deals with “why didn’t we know about it sooner.”
Bush was first briefed on the matter March 11 by a national security adviser, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday in a press briefing.
That was a month after reporters for Time magazine asked the White House about the incident on February 10.
Four days after the Time inquiry, the commanding general of Multinational Corps in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, directed an investigation and appointed an Army colonel to look into the Haditha case, Snow said. Chiarelli received that report March 9 and directed another review, which is ongoing.
Time first published the allegations of a massacre March 19.
Snow said Bush “is allowing the chain of command to do what it’s supposed to do in the Department of Defense, which is to complete an investigation.”
A U.S. Marine spokesman told CNN Friday that 12 troops were under investigation in the shooting death of an Iraqi civilian in April west of Baghdad, near Hamandiya.
And on Saturday, an aide to Iraq’s prime minister on Saturday said the U.S. military rushed to judgment in its exoneration of American troop conduct in the March raid in Ishaqi that killed civilians.
RUSSERT: Let me ask you a last question on Iraq about Haditha and some of the other alleged atrocities. The fact is, our government knew about that for some time. How high up the chain, based on your information, do you think this goes?
SEN. BIDEN: The secretary of defense.
MR. RUSSERT: And what should be done?
SEN. BIDEN: He should be gone. He shouldn’t be in his office tomorrow morning. But I’m so tired of saying this on your show. I’ve been saying this for two years.
MR. RUSSERT: Well, the president knew about it in March.
SEN. BIDEN: Well, we can’t get rid of the president. He’s there for two and a half more years. There is a system of accountability. The system of accountability is, it used to be a gentlemanly thing, as they say, when you make serious mistakes, you step forward and you acknowledge them and you walk away. Presidents can’t and shouldn’t do that. Secretaries of defense can and should.
Me here:
So, I feel it is not only fair to say, but required asking by the “press” to inquire of Sen. Joe Biden, democrat vice presidential candidate 2008, if he would like to re-address his premature and highly irresponsible [ass]umptions and pre-trial convictions about the United States Marines involved in the Haditha case … (Yeah … but Murtha’s not running for Veep … God willing he’ll lose his seat in Congress this election)
After all … We ALL know how THAT went in court for the Marines involved … Apparently Joe needs an update in order to formally express his apologies to these men … and to the United States Marines …
I echo David Harsanyi of The Denver Post in demanding Biden address this … Maybe David Harsanyi can catch up with Joe while he’s in Denver in a few days … See if he can’t get a mumble out of him on the matter?
(h/t Instapundit)
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Biden must apologize or he is not fit to serve as VP!
August 24th, 2008 at 5:21 pmEvery time Biden opens his mouth, he weakens the nation.
August 24th, 2008 at 5:38 pm(I have told him this for years via e-mail. And the funny thing is, the pathetic auto e-mail response always thanks me for the insult.)
drill, excellent post and point. Yes Biden needs to apologize and acknowledge he was wrong. I want a true all out apology and I even demand Biden to go further…I want him to denounce the treatment that Lt Col Chessani is still receiving.
August 24th, 2008 at 5:39 pmObama picking Biden as his VP is kind of a description of who he is as a person in general. unfit for command, he makes poor ass choices and seriously we have so much dirt on him and his vp already.
Their campaign will be the Titanic.
John McCain, the GOP and Republican voters will be the iceberg.
and Hillary Clinton supporters will be the Lusitania just sitting back watching that fucker sink to the bottom.
August 24th, 2008 at 5:44 pmcv
Apologizing would not even make him fit.
Biden absolutely should apologize. As should Murtha. And then they both should resign and disappear from public view in shame. The Media also needs to apologize.
Biden is an ass! To put it nicely….
August 24th, 2008 at 6:57 pmBiden is a Bully, and an idiotic one at that.
Batiste should be doing some serious soul searching these days. Perhaps the reason the war went so “badly” in ‘05 and ‘06 was the piss poor groundwork the commanders in place in “04 and ‘05, including Batiste. Perhaps he shoulders more blame than Rumsfeld in that respect.
August 24th, 2008 at 7:10 pmand Ron Paul will be the UFO
August 24th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Knottie, it would not make him fit, but it would sure give redemption the Haditha Marines! In the liberals eyes, our marines still live under the condemnation of these treasonous traitors. Biden, Murtha, Reid, Pelosi and all of the rest of the gang of tryanny should be tried and hung. They are a disgrace to our nation and a disgrace to human kind.
August 24th, 2008 at 9:56 pmNot to make him “fit” …
For public humiliation.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:26 pmUPDATAE: Biden’s not fit to hold any office…with or without an apology to the ENTIRE Corps.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:43 amUPDATAE: Biden’s not fit to hold any office…with or without an apology to the ENTIRE Corps.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:43 amJoke of the Day:
I went to Borders to get a book about Biden but all they had available was:
“Neil Kinnock:My Life in Labour”
August 25th, 2008 at 4:05 amBiden is just another Democratic Anti-American who attacks the battlefield soldier to support our enemies with word and deed.
The Democrats are basing their entire campaign on attacking American troops and America losing a war to the people that will blow up Democratic cities.
Reid, Kennedy, Kerry, Clinton, Durbin, Obama, Pelosi, Murtha, etc, etc, etc, everyone of these fools have supported jihad victory.
If the people of these cities don’t support McCain and vote Obama, I would expect that they will get what they voted for.
We live in amazing times.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:18 amLove that metaphor but it was actually the SS California that stood by and watched the Titanic sink because her captain and wireless operator were asleep and no one woke them curiously it was 3 AM at the time.
Lusitania of course got hers in WW I, 7 May 1915 when the Kaiser’s U-20 pierced her side with two fish and she sank in 18 minutes.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:30 amRumsfeld needed to be fired. However, not because of Haditha. He was dead wrong about Haditha, just like Murtha et al.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:26 am“He” meaning Biden.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:40 am