I wrote a diary last week with links to a video purporting to contain the confessions of "army ranger" Jesse Macbeth to war crimes in Iraq. I know there has been at least one other diary questioning/deconstructing said video. Well, now it has been verified by
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and indefatigable independent reporter
Dahr Jamail that Macbeth is a fraud.
More below
Diarist
snafu had a great diary
here speculating on the provenance of the video, the timing of its release and the motives behind it. Little more needs to be said on that score. This would be a great story for the investigative reporters at ROLLING STONE, or salon.com.
I have done the community a disservice by introducing this virus into our collective system. I apologize. Let me say, though, that I am not some hopeless naif. I served at a naval hospital for a few months and met shell-shocked marines and soldiers back from Vietnam who told very similar stories to those contained in the video. The meme that "our boys" couldn't do such things simply doesn't hold water with me.
In closing, I condemn Macbeth and the people behind him. Dahr and IVAW are working selflessly and tirelessly to end the carnage in Iraq. This sorry episode has not made that work any easier.