Bloomberg News managed to pen a full obituary of the late Congressman Jack Murtha today, calling him a "Supporter of Troops" in the headline, without once mentioning his incendiary--and unfounded--claims that a group of Marines had murdered 24 Iraqis in cold blood (h/t Washington Examiner's Mark Hemingway).
Murtha, himself a former Marine, said in 2005 after two dozen Iraqis were killed in the city of Haditha, "there was no firefight, there was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
Eight Marines were charged in the killings. Charges against six of them have been dropped, one has been found not-guilty, and the case against the remaining Marine is pending. Murtha was unrepentant about the slanderous accusations he leveled against these Marines. He even compared the Haditha incident to the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War (see video below the fold).
Below is video of his appearance on "Hardball" shortly after his initial comments, followed by a clip of him dodging questions from an employee of Young America's Foundation (language warning).
Murtha's service to the country both as a Marine and a lawmaker was of course admirable, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the Murtha family for their loss.
But the fact remains that "Supporter of Troops" is a questionable label for the late congressman.
