Today the Supreme Court usurped the power of the President's authority as Commander in Chief of the United States Military to prosecute the Global War on Terror. In a 5-3 ruling, the Supreme Court put the administration on notice that is reached too far in the Hamdan case.

The GTMO facility, is quite possibly the most scrutinized detainment center in the world, where by some reports detainees are confined in relative comfort by comparison to prison or prison-like facilities of the present and past, or in other regions of the world.

The Supreme Court attempted to, and for the moment has blocked the appointing of military tribunals. It was not a defeat as many of the lunatic left fringe fishwrappers scream in the boldest possible print. What the Supreme Court did today in my opinion is to take another step in affirming the assertion that our Supreme Cout is evolving into a political body and is delving deeper into the legislative arena, an arena they have absolutely no business in.

The decision enraged alot of Americans including me, for I never thought I'd see the day that a ruling like this would come from the Supreme Court, but then again, I never thought I'd live to see the day that the Supreme Court would approve of state and local governments using eminent domain to steal private property for the purpose of increasing tax revenue either.

As Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in the majority opinion: "Congress has denied the president the legislative authority to create military commissions of the kind at issue here. Nothing prevents the president from returning to Congress to seek the authority he believes necessary."
But for a far superior opinion, read the dissent penned by Justice Thomas here and here . His opinion is based upon two hundred years of precedent, the rule of law, the constitution and the Detainee Treatment Act passed by congress in 2005.

And this is precisely what President Bush stated he will do, responding to the ruling he said he would seek legislation explicitly authorizing the mililtary tribunals. He could also ignore the ruling of the Supreme Court as well.

Before the book closes on this chapter, giddy Democrats who have cheered this ruling as some kind of victory will find the spot light shining brightly on them, and they will be forced to pony up, to go on record as really supporting the GWOT or not. Considering the fact that the congress voted twice on two separate occassions recently to set some form of a timetable for the withdrawl of troops; the result was the same both times; overwhelming defeat. If these votes are an accurate barometer on how the congress truly feels about the GWOT, congress will give the president the authority to appoint military tribunals. And the liberal newspapers will eat a healthy portion of crow; again.

What concerns me about the ruling however is the fact that some members of the Supreme Court do not seem to understand basic facts that should have impacted on thier decision to even hear this case. First of all, Salim Hamdan a Yemini citizen claimed that military tribunals are unconstitutional because they allow the president and his subordinates to define the crime, prosecute the case and choose the judges who act as the jury. Mr. Hameden should not have opportunity to bring up the constitutionality of the situation because he is not a citizen and is not protected by our constitution. In fact, it is not clear that the detainees are even covered by the Geneva Convention. Incredibly, the Supreme Court cited both in it's decision.

Justice Ginsburg recently announced that the Supreme Court should, and has, sought precedent in some domestic cases through reviewing international law. WHAT?! Did I hear that correctly? How can this happen? The Supreme Court and the US Constitution, seems pretty simple to me. Its about the constitution stupid! Nothing else matters.

The Supreme Court is not perfect. The justices of the Supreme Court are human and are just as prone to be influenced by public opinion as anyone. And I believe strongly that public opinion seeped into the court regarding this ruling, eminant domain and more, public opinion; and politics that is.

Despite Mr. Murtha's best efforts I have had the weekend to think the situation over in quiet solitude, reflecting on my Army career and experiences which include combat, I have placed myself (mentally) in situations that would test my professionalism and self discipline. To be perfectly honest, I can see how a squad of young Marines, or Soldiers might commit such an atrocity. This should in no way be taken as an indictment of the Marines in question on my part, I don't know what transpired. The facts of life in wartime, are brutal, the life of a Soldier or Marine under fire in Iraq are as far from the reality of life for the average American that it can be. A modicum of understanding from the American public is called for in this situation. The average American doesn't have the slightest idea what life is like for our troops in Iraq. The average American doesn't have the knowledge, expertise or the right to pass judgement on the outstanding young Americans serving this nation.

To date, a certain population of the American public has demonstrated what I consider to be a sickening tendacy to show support or remove support for our troops, depending on the situation. Our troops deserve all of our support, all of the time. Our "I want it now" mindset has proven to be our Achille's Heel. Americans want immediate justice, immediate service, immediate results, and in the case of Iraq; immediate victory. If you have never served in the military you don't have the slightest idea how important it is for our troops to know that their country supports them and that that support is unconditional. And yet, the support of the average American for our troops changes with the wind. America has done as much to sap the moral of our troops as the enemy has, probably more. But, being the fine professionals they are, they soldier on, fighting for each other if nothing else. As professional as our troops are however, they have a chip on their shoulder. The chip on their shoulder is the knowledge that if they don't conduct every mission perfectly, the anti war politicians the likes of Murtha and the anti war left will (and have) attempt to convict the entire United States Military. Should America's support for her military contingent upon always being in the right? I say no.

Put yourself in the combat boots of a Soldier or Marine on patrol in Iraq. You are driving through an Iraqi village on narrow streets. The Iraqis are out and about doing what they do. Kids are playing, men and women are chatting with neighbors and doing chores. You get an occassional wave, a suspicious look, some turn their eyes away after making brief eye contact with you. For the most part, you and your patrol drive through the town uneventfully. Later in the day, as you return to base, you drive through the same village. Immediately you realize a big difference, it looks like a ghost town. You see nobody outside. As you drive through the last intersection and can relax to some degree and cruise the last few miles of patrol to the safety of your base you see your lead vehicle engulfed in a violent cloud of dust, you see the gunner of the vehicle blown from the turret, his mangeld body flung through the air like a sock puppet. A split second later you hear it, the sharp crack of a detonation the thunder of the full explosion and the air is knocked from your lungs, your eyes feel as though they have turned to painful spoonfulls of jelly as the concussion wreaks havoc on your body; it really hurts. Your ears are ringing, you can't hear a thing. Instinctively your men exit their vehicles and form a defensive perimeter as they have been trained to do. The medic rushes with his aid bag to begin evaluating the casualties of the lead vehicle. The gunner is dead, one of his legs is blown off, his body is mangeld horribly. The driver can't see, he is blinded, blood runs from both of his ears, he has shrapnel wounds to the left side of his body, blood spurts from his neck like a grotesque fountain, long, powerful, gushing spurts, and with each heartbeat he is closer to death, the medic does not know if he can stop the bleeding, the vehicle commander is unhurt, but he is shaken, blood is running from his ears too, he is more pissed off than hurt. He dutifully takes a position on the perimeter anyway, scanning for enemy movement. In the village all is silent, no movement, no sound, nothing to indicate any enemy activity, or any activity at all for that matter. As the medic struggles with the wounded driver, and one of your men tries to contact dustoff on the radio to get a medevac to your location you feel anger, it slowly grows like a thunder cloud, the more you think about what just occured, the more pissed of you get, couldn't a friendly Iraqi have waved your patrol off? One of your men is dead, another lies in an ever growing pool of blood, dying. You had almost completed this patrol, but at the last intersection before base, your lead vehicle is hit with an IED. Your anger contiues to grow, the frustration you feel with the Iraqis in the village is incomprehensible. You are in this country to liberate these people, to free them from a mad dictator, to protect them from radical jihadists, to establish a democratic form of government, to rebuild the infastructure of their nation. And this is how they repay your efforts? They don't even give you a warning that after you passed through this morning, that some foreginers came to the village and emplaced an IED? Surely, the foreigners would not have gone unnoticed by the villagers and yet, they didn't make any effort to warn you in fact; they all took shelter in their homes and allowed your patrol be blown up and one of your men, an eighteen year old kid, killed, another dying.

You still can't hear anything but ringing in your ears. None of your men can hear, you communicate using hand and arm signals. Along with a couple of your men, you see what appears to be the flash of a rifle barrell muzzle from a home in the village. One of your men returns fire. In an instant, all your men are blasting away. You begin to manuever your men toward the house in question. You break down the front door and you find crouching bodies, before you realize it, they are all dead. Your men have shot them dead.

That my friends is a scenario that has played out hundreds maybe thousands of times in Iraq and Afghanistan. Up till now perhaps, our troops have for the most part, made the correct decisions. But this time, due to anger, frustration and fear, perhaps, just perhaps you and your men made the wrong decision. When your dead and wounded are evacuated, your patrol returns to base where you report the incident to your immediate supervisor. What they do about it, you cannot control. You made an on the spot decision, you did what you did, you can't take it back.

Whether or not our Marines are guilty of war crimes has yet to be determined. I for one will wait for the results of the investigation. The media should assume these Marines are innocent until proven otherwise. And yet, I have read articles describing the event as a "massacre" "murder" and an assortment of other omionous adjectives. I can't help but recall the recent past, reading accounts of terrorists killing innocent civilians or cutting the heads off of hostages described as "slayings," "killings," "executions." Does anyone else detect a double standard here? It seems that the press is almost giddy at the opportunity to dig up the specter of Vietnam war crimes. The use of colorful language to describe alleged war crimes by our troops and the almost sanitary language used to describe the numerous war crimes perpetrated by the enemy puts the agenda of the liberal main stream media on display.

Lets all realize something right here and right now. War crimes are committed in all wars, thus it has been since the dawn of time. It doesn't excuse them but, it happens. Everyone has a breaking point, even our magnificent troops do. As a population we have done a very poor job of showing support for our troops. The media never misses an opportunity to bring the conduct of our troops into question. And yet, we never hear about acts of courage, heroism and sacrafice. Shame of us for that, and shame on the press in doing a lousy job in supporting our warriors in the field. From the first war in human history, to Vietnam, atrocities have taken place. The only difference is that today, with the advent of the 24 hour cable news services, the news is in your face, we hear the news repeatedly, its the same story rehashed over and over and over again. The court of public opinion is in session and Judge Murtha has reached his verdict. The Marines in question are guilty and he seems hell bent on pushing the responsibility for this alleged war crime as far up the chain of command that he can. Shame on you Mr. Murtha. As a Marine, as a former officers, it seems that Mr. Murtha would be counseling the media and the American public to wait untill the facts are in. That at the moment, the most important thing is to protect the constitutional rights of these Marines. I think if Mr. Murtha could, he would hand these Marines over the the Iraqis.

If this alleged war crime is substantiated, we must ask ourselves why? As I previously indicated our troops in Iraq hear what is being said back here at home. Can we honestly look ourselves in the mirror and say that we have done more than put a magnetic yellow "support our troops" sticker on our car? Have you written your elected officials and told them to stop politicizing the war for their own selfish political gain? Do any of you realize that the Army is for all intents and purposes broke as you read this? Yes, its' true, Congress in a rock solid demonstration of support to the troops adjourned for the week long Memorial Day Break without taking action on the emergency supplemental spending bill that the Army desperately needs to continue operations. And this does not apply exclusively to our forces in Iraq, it applies to the entire Army! Take a look at the bill if you have time, and also take note of the riders that our selfless elected officials have tacked onto the bill; yeah, its pork barrell spending in all of its sickening glory.

As for me? I will maintain that these Marines are innocent and I refuse to beleive they are guilty of anything unless you can prove otherwise to a jury of their peers. There is a time and place for that to occur. But the time is not now, and the place is not in the media.

God bless our troops. They are doing a job that 99% of Americans are afraid to do. All this talk about being against the war? It's just thinly veiled cowardice. If you aren't going to join the fight, then how about supporting the troops?

I have to say that the comments made on national television by retired Marine Colonel Murtha stunned me right down to my toes.

I never thought I would live to see the day that a Marine, a former officer would so cavalierly throw his fellow Marines under the bus. The fact that Mr. Murtha is doing this for political gain makes me feel like throwing up.

It is patently obvious to me that Mr. Murtha is seizing this alleged tragedy as a way to discredit President Bush, but he is sullying his beloved corps in the process, and sending a clear signal which is more important to him. Its politics over the Marine Corps and for this, Mr. Murtha should hide his head in shame!

It seems to me that, rather than yelling from the rooftops that there was a cover up, rather than acting as the judge and jury of these Marines, he should be advising caution. He should be protecting the constitutional rights of his brother Marines. Instead, Mr. Murtha has already tried and convicted these Marines in the court of public opinion and embarked on a disgraceful, partisan campaign to push responsibility for this alleged incident as far up the chain of command that he can. For political gain.

Where is the sympathy for a squad of overworked grunts who could well have been on their second or third deployment in the GWOT? These Marines had allegedly just witnessed their squad leader get blown to pieces. An emotional reaction is completely understandable, and while the commission of this alleged crime is not out of the question, the fact is that we simply do not know all the facts yet. This should be Mr. Murtha's guiding principle in this matter. But it seems that he feels he must strike while the iron is hot, and facts be damned.

I find Mr. Murtha's conduct to be disgraceful, most un-Marine like and repugnant. Mr. Murtha's membership as a Marine should be revoked post haste.