The reviewing officer, Huck added his comments: "Top notch officer with outstanding potential. Promote and select for TLS (top level school). Post TLS slate for Regimental command and subsequent joint tour. Unlimited potential and value to the Marine Corps. Capable of the most challenging assignments."

And he was recommended for a Bronze Star for his actions in Iraq.

Despite his stellar record, Chessani is now facing criminal charges arising out of the so-called "Haditha massacre" of Nov. 19, 2005 — even though he was not at the scene. He is the highest ranking officer charged. If convicted, this 19-year Marine veteran and the father of five young children, now expecting a sixth, who served in the Panama Invasion, the Persian Gulf War, and three tours in Iraq, could be dismissed (dishonorable discharged) from the Marine Corps, lose all his retirement benefits, and possibly serve three years in prison.

The charges against Chessani are the direct result of an inflammatory Time magazine story accusing Marine enlisted men of "massacring innocent civilians," in Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005. That story was entirely based on false evidence provided by a known insurgent propagandist and anti-American Iraqis. It was fanned into a media firestorm by anti-war Congressman John Murtha, D-Penn., who publicly accused Marine officers of a "cover-up" and Marines of engaging in cold blooded murder even before an investigation of the incident was completed.

Chessani was charged with failing to investigate and properly report the incident to his superiors. He is being sacrificed for the sake of placating such anti-war critics as Murtha who just happens to have his hands on the purse strings of appropriations for the military, including the Marine Corps which can't buy so much as a hand grenade without his OK.

As the Thomas More Law Center's Richard Thompson has said "We are eating our own, and the terrorists are laughing in their caves. Because of them one of the most effective Marine combat commanders in Iraq has been eliminated by his own government."

The investigating officer in his Article 32 hearing — the military equivalent of a grand jury — absurdly charged that Chessani should have gone to the scene of the killings after they took place instead of setting up a command post where he could direct his troops in the day-long battle that was raging all around him.

In an interview Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney who served 35 years in the United States Air Force as a pilot, commander, and Joint Force commander, said the court martial recommendation by Col. Christopher Conlin was "despicable."

Noting that Conlin had stated that Chessani should have gone to the scene of the IED explosion and the houses where civilians had been killed instead of going to a command post where he could direct his troops in a vicious day-long battle. McInerney said "I'm deeply disappointed that the investigating officer did not bring sound operational logic to this problem. It appears to be too much of a lack of understanding of wartime conditions.

"Lt. Col. Chessani did exactly what he should have done as a battalion commander, which is go where the action is, not where history was. He had no idea, and no value added to go back where the IED went off.

"I am deeply disappointed that the Marine Corps in convolute combat fighting can treat our leaders like this. It is very, very discouraging."

Turning to the furor ignited by the Haditha incident and the charges leveled against four officers and three enlisted men McInerney told me, "This Haditha thing has been a disaster for the Marine Corps, and frankly I'm embarrassed for them.

"This manner of treating our combat troops like this is absolutely despicable. They deserve better. I'm so disappointed in this kind of combat using this kind of logic. To me it's aggravated peacetime cover-your-butt type of logic."

In a previous interview with NewsMax on Feb. 7, 2007, the general had told me, "We need to give our people more latitude and not put handcuffs on them. This is despicable conduct by our leadership over there and I think that we've got to get with it and tell America what needs to be done."

Lawyers from the Thomas More Law Center have shown conclusively that Chessani who is also charged with failing to investigate the Haditha civilian deaths did exactly what the rules and regulations required him to do.

Chessani is not alone. Three other officers faced similar charges and three courageous enlisted men are charged with murder in the deaths of 15 Iraqi civilians caught in a crossfire between Marines and insurgents.

Lance Cpls. Justin Sharratt and Stephen Tatum both veterans of the vicious battle of Fallujah in 2004 — one of the bloodiest and most violent battles in Marine Corps history where both acted with extreme valor and courage — have been living under threat of prison for over a year, along with Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich who had been promoted and recommended for a Bronze Star for his role in the Haditha ambush.

Already an investigating officer in Sharratt's Article 32, hearing, Lt. Col. Paul Ware has seen through this charade of a prosecution and has recommended that all charges against him be dropped.

As in Chessani's case, the charges against the three are based on the word of a known terrorist propagandist taken at face value by a gullible anti-war Time reporter.

The Marine Corps officials who are conducting this wholly and shameful campaign of vilification and slander against fellow Marines who represent the best the Corps has to offer should consider just who it is history will say are the Marines who in the words of the Marine's Hymn kept the Corps "honor clean."

It will be the Chessanis, and the Tatums and the Sharratts and the Wuterichs whose names will be forever engraved on the roll of honor.

It won't be their persecutors.

Along with John Murtha, they'll be remembered on a wall of shame.

Phil Brennan is a veteran journalist and World War II Marine who writes for NewsMax.com. He is editor and publisher of Wednesday on the Web (http://www.pvbr.com) and was Washington columnist for National Review magazine in the 1960s.

He also served as a staff aide for the House Republican Policy Committee and helped handle the Washington public relations operation for the Alaska Statehood Committee which won statehood for Alaska.

He is also a trustee of the Lincoln Heritage Institute and a member of the Association For Intelligence Officers.

He can be reached at pvb@pvbr.com.

Editor's note:
Prepare for disaster: Get this emergency radio FREE – Click Here!
Make your fortune in Sectors – avoid the S&P! Click Here Now
Hold the Toothpaste – Fluoride Is Toxic – Click Here Now

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Haditha Incident