The Marine Was Doing His Duty

The Marine Was Doing His Duty (Lonsberry)
boblonsberry.com ^ | 11/17/04 | Bob Lonsberry


The Marine was right.



He was, after all, in a war.



Iâ??m talking about that deal Saturday in Fallujah. What youâ??ve heard is that a United States Marine shot a wounded, unarmed enemy in the head and killed him.



Some NBC guy caught the whole thing on videotape.



And people have been screaming since.



Theyâ??ve said that the Marine was a butcher, that he violated the Geneva Conventions, that he needs to be court-martialed, that this is an example of the evil America is doing in Iraq.



There has been all sorts of crap like that.



And thatâ??s what it is â?? crap.



Because that Marine did the right thing. And instead of selling him down the river, we should be defending him. We should be sticking up for him the same way he stuck up for us.



They shouldnâ??t be investigating this guy, they should be giving him a medal. We shouldnâ??t be condemning him, we should be understanding what he and his comrades face in Iraq.



And we should remember what war is. Itâ??s about killing the other guy before he can kill you. Itâ??s not an episode of â??COPSâ?� where everybody gets read their Miranda rights, itâ??s an all-or-nothing gamble we ask our military men and women to face.



To better understand what happened and why, itâ??s necessary to know a little bit of how the enemy has been fighting in Iraq.



Like the booby-traps being set on the remains of enemy fighters. The same day this Marine killed the wounded enemy, another Marine in Fallujah was killed â?? and five of his buddies were hurt â?? by an explosive rigged to a dead fighter. Some of the enemy wounded have been fitted with suicide vests, to detonate when American troops come to their aid. And some able-bodied enemy fighters have hidden among their wounded comrades in order to attack our soldiers and Marines.



Think that through.



What that means is that what appears to be a bunch of dead and wounded guys to us, is a very real threat to a GI.



The training and experience of that Marine told him that those enemy combatants lying on the ground were a potential threat to him.



Thatâ??s why he yelled what he yelled.



Heâ??s faking! Heâ??s not dead!



Thatâ??s a paraphrase, the original language was a little strong, but thatâ??s what he said.



He felt it necessary to yell to his buddies that one of the enemy combatants was pretending to be dead, but was really alive.



He shouted it as a warning.



And he immediately shouldered his rifle and fired. He struck the man in the head, killing him instantly.



Why?



Sadism? Cruelty?



No. Neither his words nor his actions indicate that. He did it to protect himself and his buddies.



Thatâ??s his job. Heâ??s a warrior.



He didnâ??t know this manâ??s intentions. He didnâ??t know if in the next moment he would detonate a suicide bomb or set off a hand grenade. He didnâ??t know if he had just stepped into a trap.



All he knew was that the man was pretending to be dead. And other such men, pretending the same thing, had tried to kill Americans.



So the Marine fired.



He fired to stay alive. He fired to come home to his wife and child. He fired because he had to keep his buddies and the NBC photographer alive. He fired because it was his duty.



And if he didnâ??t, he could have been dead.



So who was that man on the floor?



He was an enemy fighter who had been holed up in a mosque from which sniper fire and rocket-propelled grenades rained down on United States Marines.



He was a bad guy.



He was a man who had tried to kill Americans.



One way of looking at it is that this Marine just finished the job that hadnâ??t gotten done the day before.



Another way to look at it is that the American media canâ??t be playing a game of â??gotchaâ?� with our military. Imbedded reporters have to serve some purpose other than to be waiting to catch GIs in a hiccup in order to broadcast it around the world and embarrass the American cause and the American people. The imbedded reporters have to be working for American broadcasters, not Al Jazeera.



The bottom line is weâ??ve asked this Marine and hundreds of thousands of others to go fight for our freedom and safety. We owe it to him and them to support them as they do what they have to do to come home safely to their families.



We are not impartial in this.



We have a stake.



Those troops are fighting for us. And fighting a war isnâ??t about being nicey-nice. Fighting a war is about erring on the side of making it home safely.



The Marine in that mosque Saturday didnâ??t know the man he shot was unarmed and wounded. He just knew that, in the various explanations for the manâ??s actions, there was the real possibility he meant the Americans harm.



At that point you donâ??t ask questions.



You donâ??t get politically correct.



You do what you have to do.



This Marine did that.



And for that he should be supported and praised, not attacked and punished.



No charges should be brought against this Marine. No punishment should be administered against him.



He was only doing his duty.



And America supports him.

That's war. War is shitty, but it is about killing the enemy. That Marine was doing his job. I don't think he should get a medal for his actions, but I don't see the big deal in it. If the man didn't want to die he should have surrendered not faked his death. That is deception and he was fair game. Bleeding heart liberals won't be happy until everyone is fighting war with stunguns and then they will still bitch about that. If you are not fighting in the war you have no right to be a critic of our troops actions. They are the ones with their lives on the line!

Quote:

---

And we should remember what war is. Itâ??s about killing the other guy before he can kill you. Itâ??s not an episode of â??COPSâ?� where everybody gets read their Miranda rights, itâ??s an all-or-nothing gamble we ask our military men and women to face.

---

Its true.............war is war. This type of thing has happened in every war ever, it is just the first war that has appeared on our T.V. screens like this.

Unless we have ever been in a combat zone, ( which most of us haven't) we are unable to immagine what it is like to be there and what is going through a soldiers mind whilst in combat.

I am deffinatly not pro war but what do people expect when war happens? These guys are in effect trained to kill, they are doing the job the government sent them there to do.

My issues are with the corrupt governments and there hidden agendas not a Marine sent to do what he has trained to do.



Peace

Shouldn't fuckin be there , should never have been there , Bush and Blair are total wankers.
I wouldn't trust a US soldier with a BB gun.
Best equipped army but the worst bleedin soldiers , friendly fire is something we have come to expect when fighting side by side with the good ole USA.Trigger happy Rambo wannabes.

The Marine was right. Now, along with all the stress those poor guys are facing everyday, they have to worry about "tattle tale" reporters. :rolleyes:

he did the right thing. one of the things that u are trained for as a marine is to never leave your wounded behind and to do what ever it takes to protect the wounded. so what if he was unarmed cause i bet u the next day he would of been armed and tryin to kill us. the things i would do to be back over there

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by psychocat

Shouldn't fuckin be there , should never have been there , Bush and Blair are total wankers.
I wouldn't trust a US soldier with a BB gun.
Best equipped army but the worst bleedin soldiers , friendly fire is something we have come to expect when fighting side by side with the good ole USA.Trigger happy Rambo wannabes.

---

It is not the troops. I don't know about regular army infantry, but I have served with Delta and Ranger units. They are pretty good to go. Marine infantry are about the best ground units you will find. Friendly fire comes from lack of communication and is usually out of the troops hands. It is not just a recent thing. Back in the day archers fired mistakenly on their own troops also. Fog of War is a bitch.

Army's LT Caley's Vietnam's Mai Lai massacre :mad: [[ NOT ]] what they did not tell you was we lost men before we did it to them!!! when you have Kids that are 7/8/9 yr old with Machine Pistols what the hell do you do!!!
A Marine that was with them and would do it again.

A death is never acceptable in a war that shouldnt be.

The C

The marine shoudl be shot if anything.

If doing yoru duty means ethinic cleansing, then your in the wrong buisness.

The C

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by The C

The marine shoudl be shot if anything.

If doing yoru duty means ethinic cleansing, then your in the wrong buisness.

The C

---

He should be shot for doing his job? Marine infantry are trained to kill. It is the government that is fucked up for sending them their. Our troops are just doing their job and trying to stay alive. If that insurgent wanted to stay alive he should've surrendered.

Last I knew, we were supposed to capture ((and then torture and make fun of)) unarmed soldiers of the enemy. I understand doing so is significantly more difficult in this war because of all the new goofy tactics they are using ((strapping bombs to their body)) but I also understand that even soldiers need to have a concience. I think the marine made a mistake, one that because of his training he will probably feel no remorse for. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does a war where we don't kill unarmed people really make us sensative? I just don't think it does. I think we're doing lots of other things that tilt the scale towards quite unsensative. I don't feel that this marine should be severely punished, but I do believe he should be taken off the field. By the way, your poll is very biased. It hardly covers half the spectrum of options, and the half it does cover all makes your opinion look better. If I was beginning a thread over if gay people went to hell, and I prefaced it with a poll that asked the question "What is your sexuality?" and the options were:
"I'm Homosexual"
"I'm Bisexual"
"I'm primarily into beastality."
do you feel that would be at all fair?


Me either.

Encatuse.

He should be shot for doing his job? Marine infantry are trained to kill. It is the government that is fucked up for sending them their. Our troops are just doing their job and trying to stay alive. If that insurgent wanted to stay alive he should've surrendered.

<--- Because he chose peace and surrender he shoudl be shot?
I never said the amrine shoudl be shot, i said "if anyone should be shot it shoudl be tha marine"

It's the peopel who follow the government to the war, if the amrine decided with his consious this is a terrible war he could quite or shoud leave as a refugee to antoher country.

By the way, your poll is very biased. It hardly covers half the spectrum of options,

---> ha ah eyah man, not kidding, thats why i didnt vote.


The C.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Encatuse

Last I knew, we were supposed to capture ((and then torture and make fun of)) unarmed soldiers of the enemy. I understand doing so is significantly more difficult in this war because of all the new goofy tactics they are using ((strapping bombs to their body)) but I also understand that even soldiers need to have a concience. I think the marine made a mistake, one that because of his training he will probably feel no remorse for. Correct me if I'm wrong, but does a war where we don't kill unarmed people really make us sensative? I just don't think it does. I think we're doing lots of other things that tilt the scale towards quite unsensative. I don't feel that this marine should be severely punished, but I do believe he should be taken off the field. By the way, your poll is very biased. It hardly covers half the spectrum of options, and the half it does cover all makes your opinion look better. If I was beginning a thread over if gay people went to hell, and I prefaced it with a poll that asked the question "What is your sexuality?" and the options were:
"I'm Homosexual"
"I'm Bisexual"
"I'm primarily into beastality."
do you feel that would be at all fair?


Me either.

Encatuse.

---

Howdy Encatuse,

Your point about the poll being biased is a fair point to make. What do you think I should have included in the poll,in order to make it more comprehensive and balanced ?

I thought that since there was no option,on the part of the Marine's C.O.,to do nothing in response to the incident,that it was not a viable option to pose. I value your opinion-and look forward to your response.

Have a good one...Torog

Sawleaf is right, the Marine was doing his job. Again the war is Bush's fault, not the Marines. He did not know the insurgent was unarmed. His first instinct is to assess the situation and act accordingly in order to stay alive and keep the other soldiers alive. It came down to "us or them". I don't have any doubt that if the insurgent was armed, he would've tried to mow down as many Marines as possible, and most likely taken the reporter out ,too, if he could have.

I know that if I was the Marine I would have done the same exact thing.

Now if the insurgent was surrendering and the Marine shot him, then that would be an entirely different story...

The C, i swear to god i hope you go to iraq and have sympathy for one of those fuckers when they are playing dead. Go ahead help him out, just as he detonates the bomb in his vest.

And for everyone else, i hope your are enjoying the freedom you have right now. The freedom to be talking about this, the freedom to have a family, a job, an education. How can u judge these marines that are risking their lives to give you those freedoms? You can say, oh we dont need to be over there, its not our war. Thats easy to say when you already have your freedoms, but iraqis dont.

So try to think of somethin else to do than critize a marine who has to deal with suicide bombings, gettin shot at, and ambushes almost everyday. Its a lot more serious than your problems

Sorry for the double post

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MRB041

And for everyone else, i hope your are enjoying the freedom you have right now. The freedom to be talking about this, the freedom to have a family, a job, an education. How can u judge these marines that are risking their lives to give you those freedoms? You can say, oh we dont need to be over there, its not our war. Thats easy to say when you already have your freedoms, but iraqis dont.

So try to think of somethin else to do than critize a marine who has to deal with suicide bombings, gettin shot at, and ambushes almost everyday. Its a lot more serious than your problems

Sorry for the double post

---

Bullshit!!!
No US or Brit troops should even be anywhere near Iraq, this war wasn't about freeing Iraq it was about control of the oilfields , corporations run America not the US goverment.

Greed is god to these people and they use any tactics they feel like to achieve power , wake up and smell the coffee.

Pinochet helped to power
Saddam backed and betrayed
Taliban helped into power

If the US goverment will interfere in the democracy of one country how can they be supporters of democracy ?

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/fre...1_carlyle.html

HOLY FUCKING SHIT MAN...WHAT SHOULD WE DO...ITS A WOUNDED SOLDIER...HE DOESNT LOOK LIKE HES MOVING...LETS CALL IN AN AIR STRIKE...GOOD IDEA RAMBO 1

Lets reverse the situation...it was a wounded AMERICAN soldier and the shooter was Iraqi...I can just picture it now...boo hoo, those animals should pay for what they did under the Geneva convention...FUCKING GET REAL, U AMERICANS CANT GO ANY LOWER.

"Another way to look at it is that the American media canâ??t be playing a game of â??gotchaâ?� with our military. Imbedded reporters have to serve some purpose other than to be waiting to catch GIs in a hiccup in order to broadcast it around the world and embarrass the American cause and the American people. The imbedded reporters have to be working for American broadcasters, not Al Jazeera."

YOU FUCKING IDIOT, HE WOULD HAVE SHOT HIM ANYWAY WEATHER THE CAMERA WAS THERE OR NOT. HE DECIDED TO PULL THE TRIGGER, DID YOU HEAR ANY OTHER GUN SHOTS FROM THE WOUNDED MAN LYEING ON THE FLOOR...NO...ITS ANOTHER WOUNDED SOLIDER...INSTEAD OF HAVING SOME THOUGHT LETS JUST KILL HIM WITHOUT THINKING OF HIS FAMILY...

STOP THINKING ABOUT YOURSELVES AND START THINKING ABOUT WHAT 'OTHER' PEOPLE HAVE GONE THROUGH...STOP FUCKING PUTTING YOURSELVES FIRST.

Bud Man, turn your caps lock off, it doesn't help prove your point...it just makes it seem like you're shouting. Second of all, as the Marine was thinking about the insurgent's family should he have forgotten about his own? It's a war, survival of the fittest. Sorry if it sounds harsh but it's the way of the world... There's no time for questioning things, it's shoot or be shot. Plain and simple. That's why that guy is a Marine and you're in Australia, judging him from behind your pc, enjoying civilian life.

I hate the war, we shouldn't be there. But I am not going to show any disrepect for the men and women doing their jobs. Blame Bush, not the US Marines.

BuD MaN

I hesitated once with a WOUNDED SOLDIER and took 2, I won't hesitate AGAIN!!

The IDIOT'S on the hill put our man in harms way for there greed and what every else sutes them..
So doze that mean that they have to stand there and get killed for the ass holds on the Hill Hell No. all we hear is what they want the people to hear to make It look Good or Bad But, as Paul Harvey would say, [here's] Where's}} the rest of the story. ?????????????????????

mindset. Fascism is upholding our freedoms. Those that would lock him up for just being a member of this board are his saviours. He likes to lick the hand of fascists and promote these fascists with utter BS. Wouldn't it be ironic if somehow, the fascists he supports were to become aware of him? That is of course if he is actually a supporter of pot legalization. Why not just say you are a pot supporter, then do everything you can to promote fascism on every other point. Then we could put up a poll on whether they should get a medal or a cash reward and welcome him to the land of those "protecting our freedoms" by placing us in jail. Praying for irony.

Ed Ward, MD

Ed, what the hell are you talking about? Oh, and I've got something for you to kiss, not lick, and it ain't my hand. :rolleyes:

try personal attacks.

First rule of fascism.

TR E WAR, III
Founder, LA-CRC, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LA-CRC/
Founder, LSMP, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LSMP/
edward19(at)cox.net (at) = @ (for the @ crawlers) my email.
http://thepriceofliberty.org/ward.htm
https://www.quickbase.com/db/99r7qj9...sineConsulting (Class action lawsuit state info)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/louisi...rightscouncil/ (LA state info)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LA-CRC/ [Louisiana Civil Rights Council Message Board]
Learn about your Family and Individual Constitutional Rights and this governments Constitutional Restrictions and Vote.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Lock down a town and and blow up civilians. It's patriotic.
Support the fascists that would make everyone here a prisoner. It's patriotic.

Nope, It's just FASCISM at it's patriotic best.

TR E WAR, III
Founder, LA-CRC, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LA-CRC/
Founder, LSMP, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LSMP/
edward19(at)cox.net (at) = @ (for the @ crawlers) my email.
http://thepriceofliberty.org/ward.htm
https://www.quickbase.com/db/99r7qj9...sineConsulting (Class action lawsuit state info)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/louisi...rightscouncil/ (LA state info)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LA-CRC/ [Louisiana Civil Rights Council Message Board]
Learn about your Family and Individual Constitutional Rights and this governments Constitutional Restrictions and Vote.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

people die, things get broken

...the day before he had a rpg on his shoulder trying to kiill your neighbor/son/father/countryman....no tears on my end