Posted on 11/19/2004 5:34:42 PM PST by X-USAF
The Marine was right.
He was, after all, in a war.
I’m talking about that deal Saturday in Fallujah. What you’ve heard is that a United States Marine shot a wounded, unarmed enemy in the head and killed him.
Some NBC guy caught the whole thing on videotape.
And people have been screaming since.
They’ve said that the Marine was a butcher, that he violated the Geneva Conventions, that he needs to be court-martialed, that this is an example of the evil America is doing in Iraq.
There has been all sorts of crap like that.
And that’s what it is – crap.
Because that Marine did the right thing. And instead of selling him down the river, we should be defending him. We should be sticking up for him the same way he stuck up for us.
They shouldn’t be investigating this guy, they should be giving him a medal. We shouldn’t be condemning him, we should be understanding what he and his comrades face in Iraq.
And we should remember what war is. It’s about killing the other guy before he can kill you. It’s not an episode of “COPS” where everybody gets read their Miranda rights, it’s an all-or-nothing gamble we ask our military men and women to face.
To better understand what happened and why, it’s necessary to know a little bit of how the enemy has been fighting in Iraq.
Like the booby-traps being set on the remains of enemy fighters. The same day this Marine killed the wounded enemy, another Marine in Fallujah was killed – and five of his buddies were hurt – by an explosive rigged to a dead fighter. Some of the enemy wounded have been fitted with suicide vests, to detonate when American troops come to their aid. And some able-bodied enemy fighters have hidden among their wounded comrades in order to attack our soldiers and Marines.
Think that through.
What that means is that what appears to be a bunch of dead and wounded guys to us, is a very real threat to a GI.
The training and experience of that Marine told him that those enemy combatants lying on the ground were a potential threat to him.
That’s why he yelled what he yelled.
He’s faking! He’s not dead!
That’s a paraphrase, the original language was a little strong, but that’s what he said.
He felt it necessary to yell to his buddies that one of the enemy combatants was pretending to be dead, but was really alive.
He shouted it as a warning.
And he immediately shouldered his rifle and fired. He struck the man in the head, killing him instantly.
Why?
Sadism? Cruelty?
No. Neither his words nor his actions indicate that. He did it to protect himself and his buddies.
That’s his job. He’s a warrior.
He didn’t know this man’s intentions. He didn’t know if in the next moment he would detonate a suicide bomb or set off a hand grenade. He didn’t know if he had just stepped into a trap.
All he knew was that the man was pretending to be dead. And other such men, pretending the same thing, had tried to kill Americans.
So the Marine fired.
He fired to stay alive. He fired to come home to his wife and child. He fired because he had to keep his buddies and the NBC photographer alive. He fired because it was his duty.
And if he didn’t, he could have been dead.
So who was that man on the floor?
He was an enemy fighter who had been holed up in a mosque from which sniper fire and rocket-propelled grenades rained down on United States Marines.
He was a bad guy.
He was a man who had tried to kill Americans.
One way of looking at it is that this Marine just finished the job that hadn’t gotten done the day before.
Another way to look at it is that the American media can’t be playing a game of “gotcha” with our military. Imbedded reporters have to serve some purpose other than to be waiting to catch GIs in a hiccup in order to broadcast it around the world and embarrass the American cause and the American people. The imbedded reporters have to be working for American broadcasters, not Al Jazeera.
The bottom line is we’ve asked this Marine and hundreds of thousands of others to go fight for our freedom and safety. We owe it to him and them to support them as they do what they have to do to come home safely to their families.
We are not impartial in this.
We have a stake.
Those troops are fighting for us. And fighting a war isn’t about being nicey-nice. Fighting a war is about erring on the side of making it home safely.
The Marine in that mosque Saturday didn’t know the man he shot was unarmed and wounded. He just knew that, in the various explanations for the man’s actions, there was the real possibility he meant the Americans harm.
At that point you don’t ask questions.
You don’t get politically correct.
You do what you have to do.
This Marine did that.
And for that he should be supported and praised, not attacked and punished.
No charges should be brought against this Marine. No punishment should be administered against him.
He was only doing his duty.
And America supports him.
- by Bob Lonsberry © 2004
Excellent idea.
Best ever.
Excellent post......
Big Pharaoh
Hi, I am from Egypt. This is my first blog ever. I would like to use it in making my voice heard.
http://bigpharaoh.blogspot.com/
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Irresponsible Media
Before reading the following post I want you to fully grasp the fact that I'm willing to do anything for Iraq to succeed. I'm willing to accept anything just so that Iraq has decent elections next January that might result in a decent country in the Middle East. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than defeating the PMDs (People of Mass Destruction) in Iraq and helping the country to become 20% of India.
So I get really pissed off when I see American news channel frantically looking for an explosive news report even if it will jeopardize the work of US and Iraqi forces in Iraq. I am beginning to believe that such news channel deliberately search for news that might embarrass the military establishment in Iraq.
The problem is not about NBC broadcasting that tape to its American audience. The channel has the right to broadcast anything it deems as newsworthy, but before broadcasting such tape, NBC should have considered how its Arab and Iraqi audience will react. We live in a global world and everyone can gain access to whatever Americans are reading and watching.
Now if Gallup conducted a poll asking Americans this question: do you think all 140,000 soldiers in Iraq are war criminals and murders just like the soldier who shoot the injured fighter? The vast majority will say no. Now if the same poll was conducted in an Arab country, the vast majority will say yes.
Now, I'm sure you know by now that the Arab media do not give a dead stinky decomposed rat's ass about Iraqi civilians and policemen who die everyday by bombs that were probably planted by this "injured fighter", but they pay considerably attention when few US soldiers disregard the Geneva Convention while fighting enemies who know no conventions.
Just have a look at today's Al Ahram, Egypt's number one newspaper. The NBC tape made it to the paper's major headlines. A huge editorial talked about how this incident resembles what happened at Abu Ghraib prison. And what did poor Margaret Hassan receive? A 15-words column at the bottom of page one. The car bomb that killed Iraqi civilians was thrown to page 4. Thank you NBC, thank you NBC.
Now what would be the effect on those brave Iraqi soldiers who are fighting side by side with their American counterparts? What would happen to those who bleed with the Americans in order to destroy the terrorist bee hive? How would they feel now after they learned that their American friends are nothing but war criminals and Geneva Convention breakers? Many Iraqis, especially those who are beginning to support the terrorists in the Sunni triangle, will start to believe that Iraq's new army and police deserve to be killed since they're working with war criminals and Geneva Convention breakers. Thank you NBC, thank you NBC.
Dear America's news channels, I don't care whether you are liberal or conservative or claim to be standing on the middle ground, please watch what you are saying. The world is watching what you say and they interpret it in ways that will satisfy their preconceived views of America. Talk about gays, about Bush's ears, about Michael Jackson's adventures with kids, but PLEASE take your hands off Iraq.
Now, I feel I want to say a poem and this poem will be naughty. Do you know the feeling when you just want to say something inappropriate just to relief your chest from anger? I want to do just that now:
They slaughter innocent people, piss on GC
They bomb police stations and kill scores of innocents, piss on GC
They pass out judgments and cut off heads as if they are God, piss on GC
They kill Iraq's academic community, piss on GC
They hide in civilian houses, piss on GC
They shoot from mosques, piss on GC
They store weapons in mosques, piss on GC
They slit half the throat and drain the blood out like a fountain, piss on GC
What is GC? It is the Geneva Convention.
Give this soldier the Medal of Honor.
// posted by GM @ 5:02 PM
Has it been proven they actually were left behind by other Marines?
The way I understand it, we have Sites saying they were treated & left behind, but I haven't read any other corroboration of it. It does seem odd to me also, but then I wasn't on the ground in Fallujah.
Yeah. . .all I've heard are media reports, unverified.
It makes no sense.
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