I’ve just sent this letter to General Michael Hagee, the Commandant of the Marine Corps (comrel@hqmc.usmc.mil). You might want to pile on:
Dear General Hagee,
I’m dismayed by your recent behavior.
It seems to me an outrage, and quite possibly illegal to boot, to put Marines in the brig and to shackle them, when no charges have been filed against them.
It seems to me an outrage for you to brief the likes of Congressman Murtha before the investigation was complete, and even then you should have told him to wait, to let justice take its course.
It seems to me an outrage for you to reinforce the utterly false notion that your Marines are out of control by zooming off to Iraq to deliver sermons on proper ethics. Every Marine officer with whom I am familiar has received extensive ethical training, and they daily remind their Marines of their ethical obligations. You know this well. Why, then, do you act as if they have a moral deficit?
And it seems to me an outrage for you to fail to say, in response to all questions about these allegations, that Americans are innocent until proven guilty, and nobody has even been charged in this matter.
I think it was your duty to say these things to the American people, instead of giving the impression you believed the worst.
It also seems to me an outrage for the Corps to act as if the “Hadji Girl” song praised the killing Muslims, when the lyrics told a story–a fictional story, mind you–about terrorists trying to lure a Marine to a place they could kill HIM. Have you actually read the lyrics?
This sort of preemptive surrender inevitably has a bad effect on the morale of the Corps, and does nothing to deter future political attacks. You have gained nothing except the contempt of the Corps’ enemies, who know that if they can destroy the unique image of U.S. Marines, they will have taken a giant step toward defeating us in the current war.
I do hope that in your remaining weeks as Commandant you will find many opportunities to stand by your Marines. They sure deserve a lot better than they’ve received.