Marine sniper defends his actions [Hearing for Sgt John Winnick concludes]

Obviously, bhfred, I missed your first post about legwork.....

Red, "If Girlene was your doctor, she might have amputated by now. She loves working the saw."

Oh, my. I have to work on presenting the softer side of Girlene. :-)

Bhfred,...

SGT. John Winnick says "I did this action in defense of my Marines," and "I didn't want them to end up like other Marines I have seen," then my reaction is to not only believe him, but to put him on a pedestal and declare him to be one of the finest representatives of the people who REPRESENT me in WAR.

Yes, he's one of the MANY good ones. In fact, I'd say he's one of the finer ones from everything I've read.

"I would have preferred he call the (quick reaction force) as it didn't appear to be an immediate threat," he said.

Huh? Some guy had Osama bin Laden in the sights of his UAV, but decided to call the slow reaction team at HQs to get permission. Six years, a trillion dollars and 3,000 dead American heroes later and we still don't have Osama. I am as critical of the strategic direction of this war as anyone on this forum, but that is about getting the strategy right. Once you decide to have a war and bring in marines, folks are going to get hurt. If you don't like it then don't have a war. And if you want to have able bodied fighting men for the next war, don't prosecute the guys who you told to go fight this war for fighting a war.

Like I said, this administration made its choice when it decided to have this war. Anyone who thinks Bush is such a wonderful guy needs to think about this and Haditha and things like that. Bush and his good 'ol boys and gals cannot have it both ways. If you don't like people getting hurt because of snap decisions in the heat of battle, don't have the battle. Iraq was a war at a time and place of Bushes choosing. No one forced it on him. He didn't have to have it.

And there is no wonder some poor boot on the ground is confused about the ROEs. This whole administration has twisted itself in a pretzel over trying to figure out what the ROEs are. The rule seems to be not to shoot bad guys who might not be bad guys but they are looking like bad guys.

Obviously, bhfred, I missed your first post about legwork

Nice try, but you ARE talking to me, so please... :-)

softer side of Girlene

Red's been on a Clint Eastwood kick and for some reason now when I hear the whip crack in 'High Plains Drifter' it is accompanied by a man screaming "Girlene". How exciting is THAT?

Okay, enough kidding around. I want to end this post with this thought, maybe you are already familiar with it:

'The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.'

For those who don't think the confusion about strategy, tactics, and ROEs don't go straight to the top, you just nailed it.

Thorough investigation, my nether anatomy. If the President and commander in chief did not have someone of senior rank over in Iraq as his personal representative, an honest competent straight shooter to keep an eye on things and report directly back, someone who could get the straight scoop after a helicopter ride and a few personal interviews with the folks running the thing, then Bush has no idea what the words Commander in Chief mean, or smart and competent either (think Harriet Miers). But this is so typical. We can thank god that we have Gates and Petraeus, but remember folks, Gates is a Bush1 man. Bush2 had to run through all of his good 'ol boys first. Sounds like there are still a bunch of them around though.

and other people who have no real understanding of that reality attack him I want to stick various parts of their anatomy in a grinder.

I think that you will find that the political appointees in the Pentagon who have been doing this lack any of the choicer parts, brains or ba?!s, that you would want to stick in said grinder.

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