Haditha Marines Are Innocent

Editor, Arizona Republic

"Reference your Steve Benson editorial cartoon. Marines are Americans. Americans are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. All American citizens have Constitutional rights, non-citizens don't, and the Left always gets these simple truths backwards. I know they always blame America first, but can't they read? They can't all be public school students."

I sent the above letter to the Arizona Republic Editor. Apparently, over 160 Arizona Republic readers beat me to it, since I only found out about it this morning in Michelle Malkin's blog.

I know that not all the Left is ignorant of our constitutional presumption of ignorance. They claim repeatedly that it applies to terrorists caught in the act of attacking U. S. military forces. If the Left had its way, every unlawful combatant would be entitled to a presumption of innocence, a lawyer and jury trial, and the military would have to bring the combat troops that made the capture into court to testify, or the "accused" would walk. "How do you know the accused wasn't picking flowers? (Or looking for a lost camel? Or thought he heard someone popping popcorn?) How do you know he didn't just stumble over the AK-47, and just picked it up out of curiosity, like he said?"

The very Left-leaning editor of our local newspaper, The Independent Coast Observer, always ends each column of weekly police reports with the admonition that "all individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law." So he, and his mostly far-Left readers, also know about presumption of innocence.

Still, I'm not shocked that the Left thinks the presumption of innocence is suspended for conservatives and the military. It's ironic that the Left thinks that the sworn defenders of the Constitution don't deserve a full deck of contitutional rights.