Posted on 11/16/2004 4:34:34 AM PST by Atlanta
I'm going to start with a communication of support of this young Marine, to the Commandant of the Marine Corps himself. Then, President Bush and my Senator/Congressman.They are going to hear from me and I have all friggin day to do it. I am so livid about this that words cannot describe. As a former Marine myself, this young "Leather" was doing what he was trained to do, adapting to unreasonable circumstances (enemy tricks) and he did exactly what I would have done and what has always been done with a fanatical enemy. If authorities hang this Marine out to dry, I will never stop raising hell and will become a point man for pulling these guys out of theater entirely...MSM is SICK. Other suggestions?
Me and the Marines.
I would think you're on this thread because you're pro-Marine and here you disagree with them and me.
Oh, well. Get well soon.
"How many Al Queda training and recruiting tapes will show this footage to young recruits? How many terrorist will be made? How do we win the public relations battle with Iraqi's on the ground when they see this type of video?"
'Isn't it time we remove, if not prosecute, media seditionists who's only goal is to provide aid and comfort to the enemy?'
Works for me.
To my knowledge, CNN did not show it. Please let me know if I am misinformed.
Amen, Amen and Amen!
I will do whatever I can. This is just sickening.
I've already posted my thoughts on another thread and I agree with you wholeheartedly. You are right. The Marine was right. I am sick to death too of these low lives attacking our soldiers. The very soldiers who would fight to the death to protect the very people attacking them.
This is war and the soldiers are doing their jobs. They are trained and highly professional. NO ONE attacks any of these fine men and women in front of us.
I am sick of these irresponsible journalists who grab their chance at fame to have their names put on a story they reported just go get their attention. These are our soldiers and we need to stand tall for them.
You hit the nail on the head and my husband said in response to your post: "Well said." "Well said." I know you wil have a lot of others joining you as well in support of this young Marine.
Let the MSM stay out of the war. They know nothing about what the American Soldier does...they only know about the constant gossip they report. They are disgusting.
This young man saved the lives of his fellow Marines and his own.
He was shot and wounded in the face the day before by a terrorist pretending to be injured! He also lost a buddy in the same assault who was killed when he attempted to move a booby trapped body.
How about leaving him somewhere in insurgent occupied territory like Mosul or Ramadhi and see how the insurgents treat him.
How about advising Sites that the next time the terrorists invite western reporters to come embed with them before a big fight that he take them up on that offer. Actually, he'll probably be safer there than with our guys unless he changes his name and gets plastic surgery. I think his career as an embedded may be over, if he values his life.
I think we are forgetting here that children, women and all men over the age of forty-five were warned to flee the city. All men under forty-five were warned to go to checkpoints to surrender. This was done weeks before the assault. During the assault many bodies were booby-trapped and some surrendering insurgents actually opened fire on the troops. There were no innocents in Fallujah.
Not a Marine, but if I recall the battle of Iwo Jima, those Marines showed no quarter. How many prisioners out of 22,000 Japanese were taken? I think it was like 3.
Where was the outrage then?
We took over 1000 this time and only killed about 1600.
How can you judge a young man wrong for killing the enemy and protecting himself and his buddies.
Calls going out and email being written today.
"Embedded" reporters need to be taken out! How absurd!
amen and bump.
Sign me up!
Unless there is a clear threat from the insurgent, the Marine should not have killed him. Although other insurgents have booby trapped themselves, that does not give this young man the right to assume that every wounded insurgent is a grave threat....
In a heated war environment, this is a no call. He's not at home sitting on his lazy boy watching football and gets mad at his wife because she doesn't get beer for him out of the fridge fast enough. By prosecuting this young Marine you run the risk of embolding your enemy so think they can win this war through our idiotic media. And as of consequence, creating a more dangerous situation for our troops in Iraq by sustaining the fighting needlessly.
The security of our troops is paramount. I would not trade a hundred thousand wounded terrorists for a single Marine, soldier, sailor, or airman. There is a time and a place for fine, high-minded sentiments. Combat isn't one of them. Life and death decisions are made in the blink of an eye. Choose wrong, and not just you die, but your squadmates die with you. That is the greatest fear of any troop, choosing wrong and getting your buddies blown up.
Your assesment of this situation is dead wrong. We can do everything right, perfect in every respect, and still be condemned for it. You advocate placating the very people who hate us, regardless of what we do, thereby putting the people on the sharp end in ever greater danger. Think about that before you spout off about conduct.
Exactly. This must be hammered home as the main point, not usin excuses like "his superiors goofed and didn't he didn't realize they were prisoners" or "whatever.
I think it was a mistake for the Bush administration to extend such protections in circumstances that clearly did not warrant them. This young marine's case is just the latest example of why this misguided policy is a bad idea.
Agreed...big time. I also felt that the WMD argument was stupid on Bush's part when he had plenty of justification for going into Iraq based on UN Resolutions 688, etc. All he did was open the doors for criticism. But watch what you say here...I get the impression that any criticism of Bush is considered treason. :-( Rather than silence dissent, I wish we could learn from it.
To sum it up, let's make our sure-fire argument right off the bat, cuz the Legacy Media (aka MSM) don't let us get the chance to make more than one point. Nobody can argue that these creeps were not unlawful combatants, but nobody's listening to that argument now.
The senior military and civilian leadership had better stand up and support this young marine. For it was they that put him in the untenable situation of having to fight an enemy that does not even pretend to adhere to the internationally accepted laws of land warfare.
Couldn't have said it any better.
Hate to disappoint you... but you're wrong!
An Article 32 is only convened when the GCM authority believes there is sufficient evidence for such.
The immediate commander will recommend action/inaction depending on a finding of a preliminary investigation. If judicial action requires more than that commander is authorized to administer it will be referred to a higher command... and so on up the line.
If an investigation determines no General Court Martial action is appropriate, no Article 32 investigation will be required.
A battalion commander may determine that this is an incident that he will adjudicate punishment at his level/innocence/referral to GCM authority). Battalion commanders have Summary Court Martial authority but not GCM authority.
Having been in similar situations on several occasions I must heartily agree with a previous poster... we here on this forum were not present... have no idea of the circumstances, threats, implied threats, fears, knowledge of surrounding threats.
Until PROVEN guilty I'll stand behind this Marine and have no respect for old media and others in their attempts to disparage our troops.
BTW... I encourage those who refer to the media to do so as "Old Media". Fox, the internet, bloggers and others are the "New Media". Consistently referring to them as Old Media will certainly disturb them if nothing else. The term "MSM" gives them credibility. We surely don't want that.
FREEPERS!
public relations, Commandant of the Marine Corps, in DC.
703 614 2500
I called and logged my support for this marine. The young marine on the phone was very appreciative. He said he would have done the same thing and that he hoped the media would not try to make a lot out of this.
EVERY FREEPER SHOULD CALL THIS NUMBER!
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