Will Marine Show Trials End?

Sunday, March 30, 2008 8:09 PM

By: Nathaniel R. Helms

The tarnished image of the Marine Corps continues to darken as more trials, more aquittals and more scandals corrode the brightly burnished steel that armors America’s premier fighting force.

The tarnished image of the Marine Corps continues to darken as more trials, more aquittals and more scandals corrode the brightly burnished steel that armors America’s premier fighting force.

Defense attorneys and beleaguered Marines say their cherished Corps’ surprise decision Friday to dismiss criminal charges against a Marine infantryman accused of mass murder at Haditha, Iraq, is just another billboard announcing the troubles plaguing Marine Corps morale today. Loyalty up and down the ranks, the bedrock on which the 232-year old fighting force was built, is under attack.

“First the Corps takes their innocencem and then the enemy tries to take their life, and then when they finally come home the government tries to take their freedom,â€