I understand, rbs’er. Clearly, you want our troops to hesitate, for a split second that could get them killed. How many have already been killed for that moment’s necessitation as they look at this case and wonder what will happen to them if they shoot? Because for one brief second it crossed their minds that they may be held accountable for killing an innocent among insurgents?
Do not give me the usual spiel about “None would be killed if we were not there”. That is not real, that is not the reality of the situation. Clearly, even if it were announced today that they were all coming home, (and oh how I wish that were true) it would take months (if not years) to extract all the troops and equipment, they would still have to face an enemy that blends in with the population of Iraqi.
So what will come of trying these Marines? Even if not one of them is found guilty at court martial, what will it teach the troops? Hesitate? Ask for insurgents ID? What?
How many troops will die in Iraq because this has taught them to hesitate a moment too long? How many, rbs’er? You do not know, because you do not care. They are just mere obstacles to your bleating of “Bubble Boy”, “Shrub”, “Dubya”....blah blah blah.
They will just add to the height of your soap box as you use the body count of troops to stand on for your opposition to the war.
It is not enough for you that these Marines have already said they will have to live daily with the repercussions of realizing they killed a child who was among the insurgents...long before the Marines arrived. Though out Haditha, the insurgents terrorized the citizens. All that does not matter to you, you play semantics: “no insurgents in the houses”. Educate yourself on the day to day life of the people of Haditha. How they are terrified of the day ALL US Marines leave Haditha, and the insurgents/AL Qaeda takes over, and the real killings begin anew.
How many troops will die today in Iraq, because they hesitated a moment too long? Do you even care?
http://forums.fingerlakes1.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=665553&page=0&fpart=2
It's too long to post as a thread (it's like reading a pamphlet) but you might be interested in taking a peek (it gets better as it goes along).
Essentially, the lieutenant colonel is an expert on the lawful use of force in combat and he testified for the defense.