NBC Says Marine Shot Dead Wounded Iraqi Prisoner

Rooters via Yahho!News ^ | November 15, 2004

[floriduh voter]

And, subsequently, I heard that the guy was playing dead and was armed. The soldier had been shot the day before. The embeds are sometimes more trouble than they're worth.

[sullivan-fan]

In general, I don't think the terrorists in Fallujah qualify as illegal combatants if they carry their arms openly.

[txrangerette]

mark

[jackbill]

If true, that was a spectacularly foolish move on the part of the marine that will no doubt end up in a court martial. What could he have been thinking?

Perhaps he was thinking about a Marine buddy who, a block away, was killed by a booby-trapped "dead" insurgent.

Or perhaps he was still in shock from being shot in the face the day before.

[jackbill]

You've got that exactly right.

[Doctor Don]

It is a mark of our pathological times to have a TV reporter accompany troops in battle. Decisions have to be made in an instant and can not always be correct. That is the chaos of war! The Iraqi would not be dead if he had not taken up arms against our guys. He made a bad decision that resulted in his death! We must stop second guessing our military.

[Txsleuth]

I think the best idea I have seen on the whole thread is when one of the posters suggested that the Marine should have asked the REPORTER to go over and see if the guy was still alive.

He might have submitted a different report.

[jimbo123]

Another e-mail address for the NBC traitor:

kevinsites@hotmail.com

[geopyg]

"One poster cited the killing of SS soldiers"

I haven't had time to read this whole thread yet. I was in a doctors office last year and they had an older book about doctors in the military. One doc told of when he and other doctors where the first to go in one of the concentration camps. They saw the Jews, found the guards, and shot the guards on the spot. This from a doc - which I thought was amazing that a doc would pull the trigger to kill someone.

Have seen old History programs about the war in the Pacific - and the Marines would take no prisoners (the few Japs that would surrender were shot). No way to handle them.

It seems pretty brutal. But firebombing entire cities is brutal too.

Not sure what the story of this Marine is - but war is hell. My prayers for him.

I was showing my 10-year old son a photo of a good Iraqi soldier taking off his shoes before entering to search a mosque out of respect. I asked him if he thought the terrorists (like the ones who attacked on 9/11) would show respect to our church? (Answer was no.) Told him we are trying to win the good favor of the regular Iraqi's over there by not desecrating their mosques - but we then run the risk of some of our guys getting killed or injured (or now - court-martialed.) I told him part of me thinks when we suspect one of their mosques has the enemy we should just bomb it from the air.

I'm thinking that more and more.

[Steel Wolf]

This Marine is pretty well screwed. I watched the footage of the incident, and it's not good. Flame away, but here's my take, based on what the ROE was when I left Iraq in May.

You can defend yourself if you feel threatened and can show cause for it. For instance, had I not been specifically warned that Iraqis could bear AK-47s and stand on their roofs watching our convoys, I guarentee I'd be up on charges. It sure looks threatening. A lot of stuff Iraqis do is unnerving and seems hostile, BUT, unless they point a weapon at you, you CAN NOT engage with lethal force. The military will prosecute you to hell and back if you disobey, and they're very clear on that.

The Marine, by his own words, states that he thinks the man is faking death, and then shot him. That simply doesn't meet the criteria to engage.

I'd be scared of booby traps and fake surrenders. I've entered strange houses in the middle of the night, and had to make split second decisions on whether or not to shoot someone suddenly appearing 3 feet away from me. It's stressful as hell, and $h#t happens.

That having been said, engaging a prone detainee who's been laying wounded in the same spot for 24 hours because 'he's playing dead' while an NBC cameraman is standing 10 feet away from you is an all around bad move. I'm normally 100% against Monday morning quarterbacking, especially from my now cozy armchair, but they've got the guy dead to rights on video. There definitely still needs to be an investigation, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence so far that this guy was justified in engaging the detainee.

[WhirlwindAttack]

If you sow to the wind, you reap the whirlwind.

Yep you sure do.

[cake_crumb]

"Although, there are prob. some misguided souls who go along with the terrorist movement, who would have been ok in another time and place"

Unfortunately for them and the rest of the world, they're nothing but the equivalent of cannon fodder to the charismatic (I guess...why else would anyone fall for their lies?) overseers. I can't call them leaders, because they don't lead. They just order the gullible and mentally deficient to die for the overseer's personal glory.

There's a good reason to pity the lowest rent among them. They really don't have the capacity to understand that they're being used like Kleenex. I don't mean that we should try and understand why they hate us, pay them off and bend over for them...the Bush Doctrine, which I support wholeheartedly, is that through freedom and representative government will come education, through education hopefully enlightenment, through enlightenment hope, and through hope a willingness to work with others rather than kill them out of hand. Yeah, that's oversimplified, but I'm tired and it's Monday. I'm sure you get the gist though.

[GoodWithBarbarians JustForKaos]

yeahhh! Maybe those bassturds (borrowed screen) will learn to surrender instead of playing possum and trying to stab a good guy in the back!

[surfatsixty]

There are the ROE, the UCMJ, and the 10% rule. The Marine will have to answer to each of these. It was a f---ing shame the camera was around to document it, however.

[muir_redwoods]

War is hell. Welcome to hell, dirtbag

[Steel Wolf]

Just to clarify, I'm not saying I agree with the ROE or disagree, since it's not my place to say. I'm just pointing out the reality troops deal with every day, trying to balance the need for their own survival and mission accomplishment versus the rules of engagement.

I know a lot of people think 'this is war', but it ain't. It's a heavily armed PR campaign, and the military isn't looking to fall on the sword for anyone who screws up on camera.

[fooman]

I still think he did nothing wrong. It is not worth dead americans.

Its great that we hold ourselves to such high standards, but there were booby trapped bodies all over the place.

It will get hundreds, if not thousands of our countrymen killed if the media is allowed to run with this.

It will also ecourage more bombing, innocents be damned....

[oceanview]

I will say this - if the Bush administration caves in on this issue and starts "apologizing" all over the place, and railroads these Marines - then I drop my support. bring the troops home, they already allowed more Marines to die in this fallujah effort because they didn't want to use air power. If they cave on this, then they don't deserve to have these brave soldiers fighting and dying to this effort, let Bush go to the UN hat in hand and ask for their help.

[IonInsights]

This story will go nowhere. The MSM is dead.