And yet neither the press nor the anti-war lynch mob led by John Murtha have offered a peep of apology now that it has been definitively shown that the "cold-blooded murders" violated not a single law.

Last December, when the Marine Corps charged four infantrymen with killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005, the allegation was as dark as it was devastating: after a roadside bomb had killed their buddy, a group of marines rampaged through nearby homes, massacring 24 innocent people.

In Iraq and in the United States, the killings were viewed as cold-blooded vengeance. After a perfunctory military investigation, Haditha was brushed aside, but once the details were disclosed, the killings became an ugly symbol of a difficult, demoralizing war. After a fuller investigation, the Marines promised to punish the guilty.

But now, the prosecutions have faltered. Since May, charges against two infantrymen and a Marine officer have been dismissed, and dismissal has been recommended for murder charges against a third infantryman. Prosecutors were not able to prove even that the killings violated the American military code of justice.

Now their final attempt to get a murder conviction is set to begin, with a military court hearing on Thursday for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the last marine still facing that charge. He is accused of killing 18 Iraqis, including several women and children, after the attack on his convoy.

If the legal problems that have thwarted the prosecutors in other cases are repeated this time, there is a possibility that no marine will be convicted for what happened in Haditha.

Could it be that what we had was a rush to judgment by the MSM and the cut-and-runners? Will the press look at that possibility?

No, they will instead continue to besmirch the names of heroes and wonder aloud about how the military justice system is broken, rather than consider that the media reporting was flawed and that the war's opponents have such low regard for the truth that they acted as a high-tech lynch mob that convicted these men before the charges were even brought.

After all, that story wouldn't fit the template that they are using to cover the war.