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Mendoza was the second of Tatum's squad members to testify in the hearing. Earlier Tuesday, Sgt. Sanick P. Dela Cruz testified that Tatum, almost two months after the killings, voiced disapproval over how the U.S. was waging war and wished troops had more leeway to shoot.
Tatum poked fun at a squad member who asked permission before shooting and said he thought the war should be fought the way it was in Biblical scriptures, «where you just go in the city and kill every living thing,» said Dela Cruz.

Dela Cruz said that he recalled Tatum entering an Iraqi home near the bomb site where Marines had found more than $5,000 in U.S. currency and suggested that the money should be sent to the family of their fallen comrade to pay for a funeral.

The stuff about the $5000 bucks is irrelevant. It is exactly the kind of talk that we'd hear with any group of soldiers. A buddy had been killed, there was money, and he said where it "should" have gone. I guess a conversation is illegal??? Besides that, he's right to think of a buddy's family.

So far as desiring Rules of Engagement that allow a man to feel safer, I would fully expect someone to want to have that conversation, too.

For Pete's sake, if every chaplain had to spill his guts about what battlefield troops had told them, they share a lot about how these guys think it's WRONG for them to get killed when they've got families, wives, kids, hopes and dreams awaiting them back home.

WRONG TO DIE....it's UNETHICAL to allow yourself to be killed because of others and yourself hoping you come home.

I hate what's happening to these guys.

All they want to do is to be able to come home. And to say, "women and kids can kill you, too" is the truth. They can.

The one almost witness from Haditha said that she had to cover her ears because she knew ahead of time that the IED would go off. The families in those houses had been prepped by the insurgents. Amazing.