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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

The Tea Party's "War Hero" Candidate

Oct 26th, 2010
 
by F. Grey Parker
 
As active as I am in liberal politics, and as often as I hear the right condemn the "lame-stream media" for it's allegedly gross bias, this came as news to me. Nope, we haven't seen this get much attention in America's papers. Outside of a blurb in McClatchey, I couldn't find any substantial coverage. In fact, this is from today's Manchester Guardian reporting under the banner headline "US Veteran Who Killed Unarmed Iraqis Wins Tea Party Support:"  


photo copyright Washington Post
"The basic facts are undisputed: on 15 April 2004 Ilario Pantano, then a second lieutenant with the US marines, stopped and detained two Iraqi men in a car near Falluja. The Iraqis were unarmed and the car found to be empty of weapons.


Pantano ordered the two men to search the car for a second time and then, with no other US soldiers in view, unloaded a magazine of his M16A4 automatic rifle into them, before reloading and blasting a second magazine at them – some 60 rounds in total.
Over the corpses, he left a placard inscribed with the marine motto: "No better friend, No worse enemy."
His fellow soldiers reported his actions and he was eventually discharged after a confused proceeding. His commanding officer said he "brought dishonor" to the service.
My, how his fortunes have improved. Ilario Pantano, a killer who desecrated the bodies of unarmed combatants, is poised to win a congressional seat. 
To be fair, I also had lost track of him after the disappointing resolution to his Article 32 hearing on the matter and it's corresponding media frenzy. 
Take a look at his campaign website. Writ large are the words "Preserving Traditional Family Values."
While most in the media are discussing either the Tea Party beat down of a young woman or are still harping on the firing of Juan Williams, a man who is essentially a war criminal in the eyes of the rest of the world is likely about to become a U. S. Representative.
As if all this weren't bad enough, racist and anti-Muslim extremist Pamela Geller seems to have helped tip the scales in his favor.

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