Posted on 05/29/2006 6:38:20 PM PDT by bnelson44
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chicagotribune.com >> Nation/World --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marine recalls day his buddy and Iraqi civilians met death
By Rone Tempest, Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times. Times staff writer Tony Perry in San Diego contributed to this report Published May 29, 2006
HANFORD, Calif. -- Marine Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones says he is tormented by two memories of Nov. 19, 2005, in Haditha, Iraq.
The first is of the body of his best friend and fellow Marine blown apart just after dawn by a roadside bomb. The second is the lifeless form of a small Iraqi girl, one of two dozen unarmed civilians allegedly killed by members of his Camp Pendleton-based unit, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.
Briones, 21, a former high school football player interviewed Sunday at his family home in this Central Valley city, said he wasn't among the small group of Marines that military investigators have concluded killed the unarmed civilians, including children and elderly men and women.
However, Briones, who goes by Ryan, said he took photographs of the victims and helped carry their bodies out of their homes as part of the cleanup crew sent in the late afternoon on the day of the killings.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Ping to another Briones story...
All of this coming out today...on Memorial Day.
How convenient...but, I don't get this guy--he sure is talking free and easy about this..IMHO.
This situation is nothing more then a tool for the MSM to use - The sick reality is they are happy an event like this took place (and the whole truth has yet to come out in this.....especially regarding those facts that put these soldiers actions in a more understanding (for lack of a better term at the moment) light).
This is the second Memorial day story I've seen about Haditha. The Drive-by Media has been working overtime trying to find its next Abu Ghraib.
Shakespeare wrote that no leader ever went to battle with troops that were all spotless -- that doesn't override all the good we've done and will do.
" . . . There is no
king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come to
the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all
unspotted soldiers: some peradventure have on them
the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder;
some, of beguiling virgins with the broken seals of
perjury; some, making the wars their bulwark, that
have before gored the gentle bosom of peace with
pillage and robbery. Now, if these men have
defeated the law and outrun native punishment,
though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to
fly from God."
In this play, the King punished war criminals. The bad guys did not. It's one of the differences between us and them. The press doesn't give a ^%#$&%.
We probably killed some innocents in SE Asia but the real bloodbath happened when we left.
So they preen and spew on Memorial Day. It's what the swine do.
You watch, this Ryan Briones may be the next ex-Iraq vet that the democrats trot out to run for Congress.
Remember that guy, Paul Hackett....he was great at trashing the war...and it almost got him a Senate candidacy, until he found out the democrats will stab you in the back!!
(b) is a lot different that (a).
I wonder if he'll complain about the media when they start to paint all Marines as "baby killers".
To be honest, after the Jesse MacBeth story, my first thought is "Is he really a Marine?"
" ... that military investigators have concluded killed the unarmed civilians..."
"At least two military investigations are under way into the deaths at Haditha .."
They have arrived at conclusions while investigations are still being conducted. Is that you, Mike Nifong ??
That's common, especially in criminal investigations when the evidence is overwhelming.
All wars bring atrocities and murder even on the good guys side. That is just the reality of war. Even
WWII "the greatest generation" had its share too.
But the moonbat left wing media will be relentless in using this single event to define every service person, that "Bush has made our boys into murderers with his war built on lies". they will undermine the war on terror with it, they will erode support in the war against radical islam, they will use it against President Bush and anything else they can use it to gain traction on.
Our nation can handle any wrong doings of those involved. We have the methods and system that will deal with any wrong doing, whatever it may have been. Any wrong doings does not define our military nor our nation. WE will define that by our methods of democracy and sense of doing whats right.
But our nation is not ready for the sick attacks of its own radical left to exploit this.
Everyone of us is going to have to get out there and push back on them.
We all have the power now. Right here in our hands. At our fingertips. USE IT.
Dont let them get away with it.
Free Republic is a great resource. But take that knowledge, facts and power out of here and put it into the blogs, the papers, the radio, the TV, and wherever else sound reasoning stands a chance at being heard.
There is another way to look at this. Murtha has been crying about the incident being "covered up." What I am reading this Marine saying tells me there was an almost immediate investigation started.
Maybe the squad tried to cover it up initially, but is seems that if pictures were takena s quickly as they were and investigators were speaking to those who were ordered to clean it up and receiving those pictures, I don't see where any real cover-up occurred.
Thank you for that post. It is the best one I have seen on the many posts on this matter I have read today. The difference between us and them is that we punish those who exceed the rules of engagement.
Last year, here in Southern New Mexico, a local sheriff's deputy responded to a call on a domestic disturbance with his partner. One went in the front and the other around the back. Shots were fired. He captured the shooter, handcuffed him and went to look for his partner. He found him shot dead and went back and shot the handcuffed shooter. Him shooting the perp was caught on the sheriff's video cam. Later they found a pregnant woman dead (in the trunk of a car I believe) and a little girl still alive in the house. The deputy was convicted and is now in jail. In the heat of the moment even the best trained can lose control of their emotions, no matter how experienced they are. I have lived life, as do most of us, without having to experience such an incident. I thank God for our troops and those who keep the peace at home and abroad.
Another excellent post on a difficult matter.
I have never really bought the "cover up" part too much in Murtha's ravings...
I remember they were screaming "cover-up" about Abu Gharib also..but it was told to the MSM, right after it was discovered to happen...but, no one paid attention until someone wanted to make a political statement out of THAT.
Therfore, at this point.....I hope they are going on the assumption that these Marines are innocent unless/until proven guilty.
Go over to Yahoo and read the two articles about these two jugheads' parents "discussing" this incident with the "media." They sure are pimping the "post traumatic stress syndrome" for their two Marines.
This reminds me of the extensive airplay that the My Lai massacre received by the MSM several decades ago. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, for years, for years, for years, all to demolish the good name of our military, as if this is the only story in town. We'll never hear the end of it.
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