Posted on 11/21/2004 6:25:07 PM PST by cfhBAMA
Calgary Sun, November 21, 2004
I don't blame that Marine in Fallujah at all
By Ian Robinson -- Calgary Sun
You're a kid, probably a year or two, or even three, shy of your 25th birthday.
Not a rich kid. Probably not even an upper-middle-class kid ... after all, you don't find a lot of those outside the officer corps in combat naval infantry units.
You're probably not that bright; certainly not as bright as the highly educated college types lining up to condemn you.
Maybe you finished high school. Maybe you didn't.
The average IQ of an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps is under 90.
It hasn't stopped you from mastering the tools of your trade. You can break down a complex automatic rifle and reassemble it blindfolded. You take care of your rifle with a professional passion that is nearly fetishistic because if you take care of your rifle -- the voice of a Parris Island drill instructor echoes in your head when you think this -- your rifle will take care of you.
You're in fantastic physical condition ... the combat load you carry on your back is 40-lb. more than the average American infantryman in the Second World War.
For whatever reason, you decided to give your life to something greater than yourself. To your country. To the Marines.
When you did that, you were indoctrinated. They broke you in boot camp and then rebuilt you. You were told you were the meanest, toughest S.O.B. who ever lived.
You know the names of obscure battles where Marines shed blood in the service of their nation.
You know the words of the Marine Hymn.
You know about the halls of Montezuma and the shores of Tripoli. You know about Tarawa, where the landing craft hung up on the coral reef and the Marines went into the lip-high water and waded 1,000 yards through Japanese fire to the beach ... and won.
You know about Khe Sahn where Marines were surrounded by North Vietnamese regulars under a hellish rain of artillery fire week after week ... and prevailed.
You can look at the bewildering array of coloured ribbons on another marine's chest and know whether he's a warrior or a guy who spent his career fighting red tape.
You were told that your job was to go to the dangerous places of the planet and fight and possibly die for your country without asking why. But after you were in for a while, certainly after the first time angry men with guns tried to kill you and you tried to kill them, you figured that nobody's willing to fight and die for their country.
They're willing to fight and die for the guy standing beside them.
The day before it happened, you got shot in the face. The wound wasn't as bad as it sounds. You were back with your unit the next day. You didn't take the opportunity to slack off, to leave your comrades in the lurch.
The same day you got it, a guy in your unit -- maybe a friend, maybe just some guy -- tried to tend to the body of one of your enemies.
The guy was dead ... but he was still lethal.
Your buddy touched him and the booby trap went off and killed him.
He probably should have known better. Beaten soldiers have been booby trapping their dead for a long time. The Germans were artists at it. So too the Viet Cong.
No reason crazed Islamofascists wouldn't be either. These people booby trap live women and send them off to die. Stands to reason they wouldn't be squeamish about booby trapping their dead and dying.
Earlier this week you went into the mosque in Fallujah from which Marines had taken fire before. There were five insurgents there. Not moving. And you were afraid.
Another Marine yelled that one of them was faking. That he was alive.
Maybe you could still feel the bullet that tore through part of your face the day before. Maybe the thought of the other Marine killed by a dead man rocketed through your brain. Maybe your hands acted of their own accord.
Maybe.
You pulled the trigger.
We don't know your name yet. We don't know anything about you.
I do know one thing.
I don't blame you. I don't blame you at all.
Average IQ of a Marine is under 90????
Bullsh*t. Marines don't need defenders of this ilk.
Fallujah attacks expose new risks
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285557/posts
FALLUJAH, IRAQ - The white flag may be an international symbol of surrender, but in Fallujah it has become another tool of guerrilla war.
US marines on a foot patrol this weekend paid little attention to a man walking along the road and holding a white flag - a common sight as the conflict dies down and civilians pop up to scavenge for food and water.
But this time, US officers say, as the marines came by, the man dipped into an alley, returned with an AK-47 assault rifle, and sprayed the marines with bullets. Two Americans died, and others were wounded.
In a separate incident, marines were lured into an well-coordinated ambush by men with white flags who appeared to signal that they needed help. When marines got close, gunmen began firing from buildings high above.
Marines shoot insurgent who was 'playing dead'
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1285529/posts
The US military says marines in Fallujah have shot and killed an insurgent who engaged them as he was faking being dead, a week after footage of a marine killing an apparently unarmed and wounded Iraqi caused a stir in the region.
"Marines from the 1st Marine Division shot and killed an insurgent who while faking dead opened fire on the marines who were conducting a security and clearing patrol through the streets," a military statement said.
Military sources had said that the rules of engagement were looser during the operation launched in Fallujah, for fear that rebels would be disguised, fake death or wear suicide explosives belts.
War crimes?
Oliver North
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ollienorth/on20041119.shtml
the correspondent who videotaped the shooting, doesn't mention the medical treatment provided to the injured enemy combatants, but he does note that four of the combatants were some of those who had been left behind from the firefight on Friday. If the NBC reporter knew that from being there the day before, why didn't he tell this new group of Marines before they rushed into the room?
None of that is included in the tape, which is now being used to raise Islamic ire at the "American invader." Why? And why did it take more than a day to learn that the Marine seen shooting on the videotape had been wounded in the face the day before if the correspondent knew that when he filed the videotape? Why didn't the original story include the fact that a Marine in the same unit had been killed 24 hours earlier while searching the booby-trapped dead body of a terrorist?
Within hours of the videotaped incident in the mosque, another Marine was killed and five others wounded by a booby-trapped body they found in a house after a gunfight. Why was this not made part of the original story? Even Amnesty International, no friend to the American armed forces, has reported that the Iraqi terrorists have illegally used white flags to lure coalition forces into ambushes. Yet this, too, is absent in the original story.
I stopped reading right there.
A 23 year old is a kid!? You're on crack.
Condescending garbage.
"Average IQ of a Marine is under 90????"
Someone got it all wrong, The Marines are all supposed to be the top 10%.
It's true, I swear, My recruiter told me so.
"You're probably not that bright; certainly not as bright as the highly educated college types lining up to condemn you.
Maybe you finished high school. Maybe you didn't.
The average IQ of an enlisted man in the United States Marine Corps is under 90. "
Keep talking, pal. This is precisely the sort of condescenion that loses elections. So keep on talking.
Well-intentioned moron. Even a broken clock is right twice each day (maybe three times, if we're setting the clocks back an hour).
We need to ban embedding of reporters. Our soldiers are not intended to be tour guides, and this incident illustrates that the media is going to take advantage of every opportunity to slime our troops.
I must be on crack, too.
I read the article then I read another one by the same author:
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Calgary/Ian_Robinson/2004/11/14/713559.html
he is hilarious, although he disrespects Marines, that is not the conclusion he comes to, he viciously slams his country for letting in American Vietnam War deserters. And he rips France! This guy is cool check out his other works.
So did I.
I heard that marine recruits are tested by being locked alone in a windowless room with a six foot granite boulder. If they havn't broken it or lost it in a half hour they can't join.
Ian is full of himself. He thinks he is a clever writer. He is a snob pure and simple. His mention of the classes in a stratified society is a fallacy in the United States. He needs to go back to school and actually pay attention.
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