A soldier from the 1st Marine Infantry Division is under investigation for doing what he was sent into Fallujah to do, kill the enemy. The Marines were not sent there to take prisoners and put them on trial, they were sent there to kill the terrorists but now the media wants to turn this into another Abu Ghriab and keeps reminding us what happened last June at that prison. The media isn't interested in reporting on progress in Iraq or stories that look favorably on our military men and women, only the ones that cast doubt and suspicions on the character of our brave heroes who put their lives on the line for their country are worth reporting by the liberal media. Why is this one soldier now being singled out and investigated? Only one reason, the killing of an enemy combatant was caught on videotape by an NBC cameraman along with his embedded reporter. When later asked in an interview if the reporter believed he should be taking the side of America in his reports, he responded with "no, I believe in taking the side of the truth". Only he didn't tell the truth. He only told a part of it, the part that attempts to make the soldier look bad. As usual, it took the bloggers, talk radio, and Fox News to bring out the truth the NBC journalist didn't think important enough to report. Apparently, loyalty to that reporter’s country is not as important as getting out the dirt on our troops.
In
the video we see the squad approach a small mosque in Fallujah and meet up with another squad who had just been in a firefight with insurgents there. The squad enters the mosque where bodies and the injured are laying around and one of the Marines comments "these are the ones we left here yesterday". They check over the losers of the battle and while the camera is focusing on one side, from the rear we hear someone shouting that one of the men was only pretending to be dead."He's (expletive) faking he's dead!" "Yeah, he's breathing," another Marine is heard saying. "He's faking he's (expletive) dead!" the first Marine says.
The man on the floor then begins to move, the second Marine raises his rifle and shoots him through the head and exclaims "He's dead now!". End of Video.
The major liberal media gets this tape and immediately starts declaring the Marine guilty of war crimes and violating articles of the Geneva Convention which state that "prisoners" are to be treated humanly. No one yet knows all the facts or if this Marine is indeed guilty of a war crime or not until the incident is fully investigated but we need to look at the circumstances and environment in which this killing happened.
In the first place, the dead man was not a prisoner of the US, he was an enemy scum left on the battlefield, a terrorist who within the past few hours had been shooting at our troops with AK-47s and RPGs. He was apparently "playing dead" which is against the Geneva Convention rules of war. As with many of his fellow terrorists, he may very well have had a bomb or grenade under his clothing and his movement could have been an attempt to detonate it thus killing everyone in the room. The Marine, to defend himself and his fellow soldiers, pulled the trigger on the man playing possum on the floor. Another injured man laying next to him then reached his waving hands and arms out of his covering showing that he was alive and unarmed, the Marines did not consider him a threat and left him alone.
In the previous day's fighting, the Marine who pulled the trigger had been shot in the face and one of his squad members had been killed by a booby trapped body when he tried to check it out. This is common practice for these insurgents to plant bombs on bodies and even on the injured before they die then wait for the soldiers to come close enough to be killed when the bomb is detonated. Some insurgents know they are going to die and just want to take as many of us with them as they can. This is what these Marines have been facing every day in Fallujah so what was the Marine suppose to do? Nothing, and wait to see if the guy was wired with a bomb by having it detonate in his face? No, he did what he had to do to protect himself and his fellow Marines, he exterminated the S.O.B.
Why can't the left media understand that this is a war. It's not clean or pretty as they seem to think it should be. It's dirty and brutal and people die, you can‘t ask the bad guy if he has a bomb on him before you shoot him. The Marines were sent into Fallujah to kill the bad guys and that is exactly what they have done, and that is what they were doing when the video was shot. If embedded reporters can't use discretion and support America and our troops with their reporting instead of promoting things that give aid and support to the enemy view, then they shouldn't be there. We do not embed journalists for the purpose of creating propaganda for Al Jazeera but I guess nobody told this reporter that. I hope the Defense Department will use more discrimination when selecting embedded reporters and avoid those from the major media after this, unless they want more negative reporting in the press.
The Geneva Convention does not even apply to this war. This treaty was written and intended for state supported, uniformed armies fighting other state supported and uniformed armies. The enemy we are fighting in Iraq is neither state supported, nor uniformed, they are terrorists, not soldiers. The US Military does not need the rules of the Geneva Convention to know how to treat the enemy with respect and decency, they do that anyway because that‘s how Americans are. The battle of Fallujah has been deadly and brutal but our well trained forces have behaved superbly and respectfully, and bravely, in spite of an enemy who has not. This is an enemy who knows nothing about the rules of engagement and could care less about fighting with rules. This puts us at a disadvantage which is not good for winning but maintains our image as a decent and civilized people, but we cannot let this obsession with "image" out way our effort to win the war.
We cannot fight a politically correct war against an enemy who has no rules and only sees our rules as weakness. This is a different kind of enemy than any we have ever faced before. The rules of previous wars simply do not apply here. This enemy will use these restrictions we place on ourselves to their advantage and any violation of our political correctness will be used as propaganda against us. I have been seeing interviews with some in this country who seem to think that our image abroad is more important than actually winning the war. I strongly disagree with this way of thinking. The enemy we are fighting doesn't care about their image and sees us as weak for caring too much about it. They know they can get away with allot of brutality and aggression on our troops and feel protected by the rules and restrictions we place on ourselves.
The enemy has no respect for our civility and decency, the only thing they respect is brute force because that is all they've known and lived with all of their lives. To some extent, we need to play the game their way and make them afraid of us just as they have tried to use fear to discourage us and the Iraqis. Our troops had to be brutal in Fallujah, it was the only way to execute their mission and it must continue on into Mosul, Ramadi, Tikrit, Kirkuk, and anywhere else we chase these uncivilized savages into. Our mission is to kill the terrorists, not to read them their rights! If journalist can't understand that this is a real war and not a game, and that our job there is to kill the enemy before the enemy kills us, then they don't belong there. If journalists think they are only there to act as policemen to monitor our troops, then accuse when they see something they don't approve of, then they don't belong there. If the media wants to pretend that what they caught on tape was the equal to the Abu Ghriab scandal (which they also blew way out of proportion) and try to make a scandal out of it at the expense of the lives of our troops, then we don't need that media in Iraq or in America. That reporter should be thanking the soldier for possibly saving his life, not accusing him of violating rules of engagement.
There comes a time when loyalty to your country has to trump selling a story and political backstabbing. If all reports and video from the battle zone has to be passed through the military command before being broadcast then so be it. I would rather not see it on tv than have the airing of it put our troops in greater risk and worry about if they're going to be charged with a crime for doing what they were sent there to do. I don’t want them to have to think twice when making critical life and death decisions. Their job is to kill the enemy and that is exactly what they have to do. If one of these scum bags is killed by mistake, too bad, that’s war… get over it. The lives of our troops are more important, or should be to all Americans.
I don't care about the image we send to the world. We can't fight a war with our image as the objective. In this war we have to be as brutal and deadly as the enemy we are fighting and let the image be what it may. What kind of a message does it send to the enemy when we are more concerned with our image than with killing them? They already know this about us and have been using it against us since this war started. To the enemy, this is a weakness to be exploited both on the battlefield and in the press.
Six months ago, we were poised and ready to clean out Fallujah but held back because the Iraqi Army just wasn't ready for it at that time, now they are. Remember, they are right in the heat of the battle along side of our troops. Six months ago, they weren't well enough trained or motivated. With all of the terrorist bombings and additional training over the past six months, they are now better trained and highly motivated to rid their country of these terrorists. Many of us watching from the homeland have been saying "why don't they go in there and kick but? Why don't they storm that city and exterminate all of the rats?" Some have even suggested that we nuke Fallujah. We have all wanted to see some highly aggressive action being taken against the terrorists and insurgents who have found sanctuary in Fallujah and are trying to destroy any chance of freedom in Iraq. Now we finally have it and what does the media do? Instead of giving our guys a pat on the back for a job well done, they accused them of war crimes. When did John Kerry get control of the media?
To the Marine who shot the insurgent in the mosque, and to all those fighting against this blight on humanity in Iraq I say congratulation for doing a superb job in the face of great adversity. If you find another rat playing dead, blow his head off too. The majority of us here in America recognize your bravery and courage and support you in this most difficult task you have been asked to perform for our country and the freedom of the world. Most of us have the greatest respect and admiration for you, unlike those in the media who give you little credit and pretend to give us the news.
TechniguyClick Here to join my mailing list.
Click Here to be removed from the mailing list. Significant Newsletter articles are archived at: |