That's Sikes, you dummy!
If you are referring to the journalist, his name is Kevin Sites, not Sykes, and here is the letter I just sent to him at kevin@kevinsites.net:
Mr. Sites,
I just read your account re: “to the Devil Dogs of 3.1” I read it carefully – twice. I do not buy your attempt to justify your actions, and here are a few reasons why:
1. You say you got a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach, when you saw that Marine off a terrorist who had been in there since Friday night, and was not moving. Well since Friday night, a Marine had been killed when a supine terrorist called for a doctor, and then blew himself up. How could you be so sure that this terrorist was not going to do the same thing? You say “There don’t appear to be any weapons anywhere.” Excuse me Kevin, but that is such bullshit – because right above there you say that the terrorist is lying there “partially covered by a blanket”. Were you born yesterday Kevin? Just because he appears to you that he had not moved since Friday, can you be certain that is the case? Can you be certain that someone didn’t give him a booby-trapped bomb to hide under that blanket? Or a gun? Or a grenade? Don’t you think that the other dead Marine, the one that was killed when a terrorist blew himself up, was on the mind of the Marine who did the shooting? Don’t make excuses for why he shouldn’t have shot him by being so damned certain in your own mind that the terrorist hadn’t moved since Friday, or absolutely did not have anything inside that blanket that he couldn’t have used to kill the Marine who killed him – and could have easily killed you at the same time. And why did you think the Marine who killed the terrorist was going to cover the terrorist while another Marine would search him for weapons? Knowing what they now knew about how these pigs would blow themselves up to take Marines with them, why would any Marine any longer search them for weapons and put themselves and their buddies at risk of being blown up? They did exactly what they should have done, and that is to kill them to eliminate the risk that the terrorists would fake death or injury, and then kill the Marines.
2. You make the assertion that you offered to hold the tape till the Marines could make an investigation, and then “fill in some of the blanks” for you, before you circulated the tapes. So why didn’t you hold the tape while that investigation was being made? Your words don’t ring true Kevin. The inconsistencies in your story are very apparent, and you come across as just trying to self-justify your actions, and you fail miserably at doing so.
And that crap about staying close to an old man…is that a sympathy play Kevin? It sounds like it. And if you knew that a Marine had been killed by an injured terrorist blowing himself up, then it was a stupid move on your part to stay that close to the old man Kevin. Old men can be booby-trapped with a bomb and blow themselves up too. It seems to me from your story that you made a lot of stupid moves in that Mosque, Kevin.
I’m just speaking for myself, but if I were one of the Heroes who comprise that 3.1 Marine group, I wouldn’t buy your bleating attempt at justification for the betrayal of that Marine, and his group, and really all the Marines that are fighting for us. And by handing the terrorists that propaganda to communicate to their fighters, you encourage them and further jeopardize the lives of a whole lot more of our Marines and soldiers. I am exceedingly glad that I don’t have that on my conscience for the rest of my life. And you know what Kevin? I am glad that you do.
Gray Smith