War and the Media (O' Reilly comes out swinging for US Marine, and for once gets it right)

Fox News ^ | Nov 17 2004 | Bill O Reilley

[bluecollarman]

I have been agonizing over this. If there was some way to reward the individual Marines (like a terrorist defense fund). Where something positive automatically happened whenever the press reports it as a negative and the military proceeds to investigate. Wouldn't the press eventually stop reporting the negative?

If I could I would give this Marines family a million bucks just to make sure his family never had to worry about any repercussions from this incident.

Maybe someone could start a legal fund for our troops that would guarantee a fixed amount for any consequence that might arise from killing or disposing of any terrorist, and any left over would go to his children for a college fund. There just has to be a way to turn this into a positive for our troops besides ranting on FR.

I know our service men can't accept reward money but there ought to be some legal way to protect them so they don't have to keep worrying about crap like this.

Am I not making any sense?

[68 grunt]

http://www.petitiononline.com/as123/petition.html

[ken5050]

Oh, yeah..I was eating dinner..just about spewed my food all over the place..I'll try and find a link fro you..

[Conservative Canuck]

You guys are probably gonna kill me for this, but here goes: I like Bill O'Reilly. He's usually right on, but does get it wrong sometimes. Where he makes his mistakes is by trying to be TOO fair. Anyway, you should take a look at his show again. Just because we lean to the right and all have good common sense doesn't mean we always agree. He's got my support as long as he keeps telling it like it is.

[kellynla]

Well after hundreds of patrols and more ops than I care to remember,
I always shot first and asked questions later...
and that's why I am here today and they aren't.

Semper Fi,
Kelly

BTW, the MSM is not naive, they are anti-war, anti-American, anti-military(that's why 99% of them were never in the armed services) and anti Bush!

[haikim39]

This O'Reilly is so fake now. His show has become so flat lately. You know, just one second-rate guest after another,
with him trying to act passionnated, with a lot of 'I', 'me', 'mine', 'myself'

[cubreporter]

Well, it's too late for me. O'Reilly trashed the Swiftvets. I would never trust him...no way...no how. He's a bloviator and he went too far.

[kellynla]

When O'Reilly "dissed" the Swiftees, that was the final straw for me.

I was a combat Marine in Viet Nam in 1969 & 1970 and unlike O'Reilly who never served, I know the facts of what went on in Nam. And the Swiftees were right on and Kerry was a bald faced lying traitor. PERIOD!

Any questions?
I thought not!

Semper Fi,
Kelly

[tophat9000]

Please note that my original and current stance is a siding WITH the Marine.

I know I just wanted to point out that there is video that their not showing ... the Iraqis were still combatants and WERE pulling a trick to stay in the fight... their were able to surrender if they wanted to and chooses not to ... this whole thing is a complete non issue.. Not only did the Marine not do the wrong thing...He did the RIGHT thing...he did his job right

[Conservative Canuck]

Hoo Rah! I'm afraid I didn't hear what he said, but it seems to me he wouldn't diss any veterans. Anyway, it's a shame to throw out the baby with the bath water.

Cheers!

[rampage8]

I was happy to hear his Talking Points last night. He's been such a loose cannon lately that I didn't know which way he'd go. Good for him. Getting back to the "No Spin" policy would be good for him since he spent the last 3 months spinning to get a Kerry interview. He's still on my nerves, but this helped.

[Herakles]

Give the marine a metal and a brand new chain gun.

Good hunting soldier!

[Rakkasan1]

look, I don't imbedded leftist, but why did the Marines invite this moron to come with and then do what he wanted to see in front of him?
Are we to assume we can figure out this reporter's angle,but the Marines couldn't?
You can't invite the media then censor them.
Either have them with or don't.


I think the alleged "victim" got what he had coming.Oddly enough, the other wounded terrorist managed to put up his hand(s) to surrender after the 1st got shot. My guess is he saw what happens if you don't make your intentions clear to surrender.
The Arab media is as good as the American media at manipulating the "street".

[lilylangtree]

Are the ratings down for O'Reilly? If so could explain his position.

[Repub4bush]

Our Marines and Military are the best of the best!

We do not need to see videos of all the horrible things they must do to protect themselves.

I say get those damn embedded reporter's out of there and let our guys get the job done!

I think we should all write letters to the DOD and tell them to get those leftist puke reporters out of there NOW!

[Steel and Fire and Stone]

I, unlike most, am a combat Marine and what this Marine did was not only correct, it would have been a dereliction of duty had he not protected himself and his fellow Marines by not killing this enemy.

This incident has been represented by the press as "Marine shoots and kills unarmed, wounded prisoner". The reporter did a minimal job to put a "war" context on the report, but he knew how it would be received, devoid of contect.

The facts as we know them from published sources are:

• These guys were captured earlier after a firefight with about 20 of his buddies, operating out of that Mosque. The seriously wounded were treated there, and left for later medivac. Marines died in that assault.
• This patrol was the second patrol fired on by insurgents from that same Mosque. Don't know if casualties resulted. However, these guys had just entered that building hot on the trail of the sniper.
• Enter this young Marine. He walks through the door, and he finds no other insurgents than the five wounded on the floor. One of them makes a furtive movement. Was he armed? Who knows? SOMEONE was firing from that Mosque moments before. The other four were obviously incompassitatated, and this one evidentally was kicking. Hence, the Marine's frantic statements, and rapid decision to fire on the insurgent, before the guy was fired upon.

That is the missing context, and it's omitted by the NBC reporter (already exposed on FR as a Kerry peace activist, based on his own web site) intentionally, to shape the political debate about the war.

Was that insurgent an innocent civilian? No. He was obviously (clothing, etc.) a bad guy. Was he wounded? How was the young Marine to know either way? Was he armed? If he wasn't laying on his weapon, he could have stashed it somewhere in the Mosque after snipping at the Marines.

Was this Marine in a "hot combat, hot pursuit" situation? Was his action reasonable in that context? The answer is obvious to any objective person, without an anti-US, anti-Military, anti-Bush agenda.

Finally, if this Marine blew a cog, went Postal, and started "killin' 'em all", to let God sort it out, why did he leave the other four wounded insurgents alive?

Article 32 hearing. 15 minutes tops. Immediately followed by an awards ceremony. It should all be on National TV.

This NBC guy Sheets should be escorted to the nearest desert border, given half a canteen of tainted water, and allowed to walk home. No way does he walk in combat in the presense of honorable Marines anymore.

SFS (USNR, Ret.)

[johnb838]

No matter what happens, he will always know he did the right thing. Small consolation, but something.

As soon as the first fake dead booby trap went off, all bets regarding corpses should have been off. I still don't see how we can win a war where only one side recognizes rules.

BTW, I'm not going to use the term Politically Correct any more. I shall call it what it is -- leftist orthodoxy, and it may be political but it is most certainly not "correct."

[johnb838]

Personally I believe O'Reilly was being blackmailed by this woman and her backers (Franken wing of DNC) and finally called their bluff. Cost him $2 mill (allegedly) but bought him his independence back. JMO.

[DoughtyOne]

exactly right

[Conservative Canuck]

Hey, Kelly! How's it goin'? Pulled this from FNC. It's an interview O'Reilly did on the 15th.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,138722,00.html

Give him credit, he's going to the wall for this Marine: He even says he's made it a personal mission to ensure the Marine is treated fairly. He's also got a good Talking Points today.

Anyway, let's hope they don't crucify this guy for political reasons. As far as I'm concerned, he should get a medal (or at least a week's R&R on Malta :-)

Cheers, buddy!