WSJ: Semper Fi -- The story of Fallujah isn't on that NBC videotape [or al-Jazeera, or al-NBC/MSNBC]

Wall Street Journal ^ | November 18, 2004 | Editorial

[OESY]

...Have we lost all sense of moral proportion?

The al-Zarqawi TV network, also known as Al-Jazeera, has broadcast the tape to the Arab world, and U.S. media have also played it up. The point seems to be to conjure up images again of Abu Ghraib, further maligning the American purpose in Iraq. Never mind that the pictures don't come close to telling us about the context of the incident, much less what was on the mind of the soldier after days of combat.

Put yourself in that Marine's boots. He and his mates have had to endure some of the toughest infantry duty imaginable, house-to-house urban fighting against an enemy that neither wears a uniform nor obeys any normal rules of war....

When not disemboweling Iraqi women, these killers hide in mosques and hospitals, booby-trap dead bodies, and open fire as they pretend to surrender. Their snipers kill U.S. soldiers out of nowhere. According to one account, the Marine in the videotape had seen a member of his unit killed by another insurgent pretending to be dead. Who from the safety of his Manhattan sofa has standing to judge what that Marine did in that mosque?

Beyond the one incident, think of what the Marine and Army units just accomplished in Fallujah. In a single week, they killed as many as 1,200 of the enemy and captured 1,000 more. They did this despite forfeiting the element of surprise, so civilians could escape, and while taking precautions to protect Iraqis that no doubt made their own mission more difficult and hazardous. And they did all of this not for personal advantage, and certainly not to get rich, but only out of a sense of duty to their comrades, their mission and their country....

[OESY]

As long as NBC tries to paint our Marines as war criminals, the ACLU practices jihad against the Boy Scouts and Democrats support these causes, they can forget about their faux "values-issue" soul searching, as well as winning national elections for the next several decades.

[bubman]

SIGN UP REQUIRED. don't tease please!!!

[Unicorn]

BTTT

[petro45acp]

try www.bugmenot.com

[Jalapeno]

What I don't hear are the reports of how disciplined the current crop of troops are. Fallujah is obviously not a nice place, and here we are in some very intense fighting...and there aren't numerous reports like this, only one.

I think the fact that this is the only ball Al-Jazeera has to run with speaks volumes. Interesting how they don't give the CARE woman being killed nearly as much air time.

[Maceman]

try www.bugmenot.com0

Bugemenot won't (and doesn't) work for WSJ, because you have to pay to subscribe, and no one feels like paying and then giving their password for free to the whole world via bugmenot.

[CasearianDaoist]

Let us for a minute assume that he was surrendering? Do you not think this sort of things happens in all wars? Do you not think that there was not one surrendering German shot on D Day, one surrendering Jap at Iwo Jima? That is what combat is like.

It is absurd to hold warriors to civilian standards in the heat of battle.

What is really absurd is that the French shot point blank in to crowd in Ivory Coast last week. Was there and out cry then>

[daviddennis]

Go to www.opinionjournal.com and you can read the article free. I think there's an inoffensive signup that just requires that you give your email address, not a password. (I'm offended by requests for passwords because I always forget mine).

You get sent Best of the Web today which is well worth reading, and occasional WSJ subscription offers which are worth considering. In return, you get free access to most WSJ opinion pieces.

Hope that helps.

D

[Paine in the Neck]

When a site requires registration, just make something up. Something like whatever@aol.com works all the time. You'll never hear from them again. There's no email police going to come get you. The more invalid entries in their registration lists the better. They'll eventually find no value in asking for it and they'll stop.

[UseYourHead]

No accounts found for online.wsj.com

[bubman]

good point!

[BibChr]

Bump

[xzins]

Very Good as far as I got to read it.

What's that other WSJ online editorial link? You can get there with sign-up. Maybe they're already carrying this.

[mc5cents]

Here it is OpinionJournal.com

[xzins]

Thanks m5c.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Poor ol' MSM. They present us with juicy video of a U.S. Marine committing an atrocity and we rise up in moral outrage - - at the reporter. This isn't how it is supposed to go. Oh, for the good old days when Americans despised the military (the Americans who mattered, anyway) and America's enemies were simply people for whom we lacked proper compassion.