Posted on 03/23/2007 3:31:08 PM PDT by leadpenny
WASHINGTON - Marines accused of shooting and killing civilians after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan are under U.S. investigation, and their entire unit has been ordered to leave the country, officials said Friday.
Army Maj. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, head of Special Operations Command Central, ordered the unit of about 120 Marines out of Afghanistan and initiated an investigation into the March 4 incident, said Lt. Col. Lou Leto, spokesman at Kearney's command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.
It is highly unusual for any combat unit, either special operations or conventional, to have its mission cut short.
A spokesman for the Marine unit, Maj. Cliff Gilmore, said it is in the process of leaving Afghanistan, but he declined to provide details on the timing and new location, citing a need for security.
In the March 4 incident in Nangahar province, an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into a convoy of Marines that U.S. officials said also came under fire from gunmen. As many as 10 Afghans were killed and 34 wounded as the convoy made an escape. Injured Afghans said the Americans fired on civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away.
U.S. military officials said militant gunmen shot at Marines and may have caused some of the civilian casualties.
President Hamid Karzai condemned the incident, which was one among several involving U.S. forces in which civilians were killed and injured.
Leto, the spokesman at Special Operations Command Central headquarters, said the Marines, after being ambushed, responded in a way that created "perceptions (that) have really damaged the relationship between the local population and this unit."
Therefore, he said, "the general felt it was best to move them out of that area."
Gilmore said the Marine company would complete its overseas deployment with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which is the larger unit it sailed with from Camp Lejeune, N.C., in January, but it will no longer operate in Afghanistan.
Of the four Marine Special Operations Command companies that have been established since the command was created in February 2006, the one ordered out of Afghanistan was the first to deploy abroad, Gilmore said. By September 2008 there are to be nine companies operating as part of two special operations battalions, he said.
For years the Marines resisted creating special operations units, arguing that would run counter to their philosophy of viewing all Marines as elite fighters and not singling out elements as special. But former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pressed them to establish a separate command — the Marine Special Operations Command — to train and equip forces for the multi-service Special Operations Command.
There are about 25,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, mostly conventional combat forces and support units.
Seriously, having been a Sergeant, CWO and a Field Grade, at least you didn't specifically smear the Army that time.
CYA is not the proponent of the Officer Corps.
Lawyers? The good hearted rap in Vietnam was that each squad had a photographer.
Never said is was an Army thing, just said it was an REMF cover your ass thing. Got just as many in the Corps as the Army.
This is the first deployment of the MSOB and I will always side with the guys being shot at.
Well, I read your
9.
"You show me an Army general who is not afraid to cover his own ass and I'll show you a Highly trained Marine unit that is not combat effective."
and
11.
"Yea, your right.... A Special Operations Command Marine unit that is part of a MEUSOC over an Army general. I'll take the side of the guys taking rounds over a REMF any day."
as fightin' words.
My point EXACTLY. Something doesn't pass the smell test here. There are some heavy politics going on behind the scenes here. I'll take the backs guys who are taking the rounds FIRST. This whole things smells rotten. Not to mention the "cover story" plays RIGHT INTO the propaganda hands of the enemy.
Nope...just stating the facts as per the story listed above.
You would have thought after Viet Nam, we would have learned about being PC in a war.
I'm not going to lose sleep over it or argue about it but I know what you posted. I don't care and it's not important.
If we want our young men to fight it we are going to have to back them up when the circumstances are questionable.
We will also have to back them up when they are flat, plain, WRONG.
They don't need our backup when there is photographic evidence that they are right.
They need us to back them up just like our nation backed up our troops in WWII.
If we can't do that we should surrender right now.
We will also have to back them up when they are flat, plain, WRONG.
They don't need our backup when there is photographic evidence that they are right.
They need us to back them up just like our nation backed up our troops in WWII.
Well said....and true.
I understand but remember, everyone covers their behind when something like this happens. I'd be willing to bet the President was briefed on today's story before AP's Robert Burns was. I can imagine a secure video conference call that included, at a minimum, the President, Gates, Kearney, and probably Pace.
Plenty of truth in these words -
Regarding this unit being removed - There is clearly more to the situation then just this incident.
I disagree. After 9-11 the only ones who were asked to support the war were those in the military and their families. The rest of America put flags on their cars and told to go shopping. Had we mobilized manpower and industry as we did in WWII, needed at the time or not, the country wouldn't be as divided as it is today.
Marine Corps BUMP!!
http://kcbs.com/pages/319390.php?contentType=4&contentId=386220
Check this out: It is about the investigation into Pat Tillman's death.
I agree with you %100, 000.
If you go to any of the jihadi web sites, you'll find instructions on how to wage information war against us infidel.
Act like one of us, claim all sorts of affiliation, speak constantly to sow confusion and mistrust and work against their will to fight.
Makes me wonder about some of the posters here.
FACT:
If an ambush is getting ready to be sprung, there are no innocent civilians loitering around. That is plain bull####.
Everyone in the vicinity of an ambush is fair game. There's no magic wand to wave around to make the really bad guys glow or some stupid crap like many seem to believe.
If a pos is in the vic, he's a player of one sort or another or someone just too damn stupid to get out of the way. Not our problem.
All this crap about "innocent civilians" is weakness beyond words to describe. It is stupidity of the grossest sort. It is cult of cowardice. It is submission to enemy propagandists.
Those playing this game may not believe themselves to be betrayers, may not want to be betrayers, may not intend to be betrayers, but have allowed themselves, in their inability to comprehend reality to be led by the gonads right into the pool with the rest of the betrayers.
Weakness. Pathetic weakness. The very definition of cultural rot and a sampling of a culture so intellectually inbred as to have begun feeding upon itself in cannibalistic glee.
Hi,Txie,,,The sadness goes on...
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