Rules Of Engagement
on 06/02/2006 at 11:10 AM
2 incidents, 12 people. Oh such a deplorable trend. In the meanwhile our troops are kicking ass and taking names despite all the onerous restrictions. We are so crippled.
24 corpses - men, women, and children - scattered around the rooms of an Iraqi house. One live Iraqi hauled from his home, executed, then an ak and a shovel dropped nearby. Split second decisions the two of them.
Skipper, which incidents are you talking about?
From all I’ve heard the one in Haditha involved Iraqi’s doing their best to convince the Americans it wasn’t them. Confusion, yes. But immediate danger? Now add in the fact the perps went from room to room shooting people, and took their time doing it, and it doesn’t look to me like the Marines in question were under any real pressure. Looks to me like they were just out to kill them some sand niggers.
True, the MSM is going a bit overboard. At the same time, the military is taking both incidents very seriously. The San Diego Union/Tribune has a story on the upcoming prosecution of the 8 men (7 Marines, 1 Navy Corpman) involved. 8 men who were under no pressure. 8 men who murdered another human being in cold blood, and then engaged in a deliberate deception.
2 incidents and 12 men. Out of thousands of incidents (at the very least) involving hundreds of thousands of military personnel where nothing untoward happened. And we’re kicking the enemy’s ass hard enough to leave boot prints on the hard palate. (We’re talking about footwear suppositories here.) I’d feel safer getting apprehended by U. S. Marines in Iraq than I would get apprehended by some police departments here in the U. S. A.
As for the MSM’s tizzy. As this playwright fellow once put it, “It’s a bunch of noisy crap, that means nada.”
Kick the media out of Iraq. Unlock that cage. As for unarmed civilians being shot by these troops, what the f*ck are YOU going to do when someone kicks in your door and points an automatic rifle at your head? Me? I’m NOT going to holler at them, shake my fist at them, or doing anything whatsoever to agitate them. I AM going to point them to the nearest ARMED s.o.b. and thank them for taking care of the problem. Aside from that, I’d be hitting the prone position, on my belly, with my hands where they are CLEARLY visible.
To do anything otherwise is INVITING death. Don’t think for a moment that the Iraqi people are anything close to innocent. If armed alQaeda folks busted in their door, they would’ve done JUST as I described above...so why don’t they do the same for coalition troops? Because they know ALL TOO WELL what the “rules of engagement” are in that environment. Too bad our political leaders don’t. Yep Skipper, I hate to agree with you here, but its looking more and more like Vietnam over there.
"rules of engagment” my ass, you can’t have a “game” when only one side plays by the “rules”
Duty, Honor, Country
(in THAT order)
RowanePerhaps the military can arrange a CNN camera crew to be on hand in downtown Teheran...or Qom...or Bushehr...or Isfahan...when we drop some Big Ones on those towns! Live and in GLORIOUS WHITE!
"The Marines were under no pressure” Kiss my ass. I’d like to see you in the same situation Mythusmage. Tell me city police have not done the same thing in the USA and then been exhonorated. When your life is on the line and your best friend has just been made toast tell me that you are “Under No Pressure”.
Excellent post Skipper. I am so sick of the MSM undermining our troops and our government tying their hands behind their backs. And I’m also sick of people whining that we kill “innocent civilians” over there. These people conveniently ignore the fact that these terrorists use their women and children as human shields.
If those Iraqis don’t want “collateral damage” then they should be more forceful about letting these terrorists mingle among them and use them as human shields.
We went in with both hands tied behind our backs, this is Bollocks,
The BBC is coming to the US, ijust cant belive this, cause im fucking paying for it, this will go down like a LED ZEPPLIN i hope
Everyone is missing the start of this garbage - a ‘Iraqi humanatarian group’ made the initial accusation, the ‘video’ was shot by a journalism ‘student’ and Time magazine ‘broke’ the ‘story.’
Also the military investigates in quiet, if you will as everyone involved is in the armed services. If the accusations prove to be false or not criminally liable, the ‘privacy’ of the investigation (which most of the articles on Haditha call ‘secrecy’)are to protect all involved so that they can have careers afterward.
Too bad Rep Murtha (a Marine Vet) is so infected with Bush Derangement Syndrome that he is willing to stab fellow Marines in the back and convict them even before the investigation is finished.
Having been a family involved with a tragedy (stateside) I relish the ‘secrecy’ as our situation was not blazen all over the front page of the local news while we were still in shock and waiting to see if our son lived. And it took the agents a while to talk to everyone necessary including our son - before they wrote the report. Rep Murtha seems to have forgotten that soldiers PCS, get wounded, and so on and so on and it takes time and effort to track them down and get official statements and then coalesque all of that into the final report - especially in a time of War with units rotating into and out of the Combat theater. . .
We all need to write Rep Murtha and remind him that it isn’t the 70s anymore and that the Vietnam War is over - - those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it and Vietnam and all it’s fallout, isn’t something any Veteran or Active Duty soldier would want to repeat.
On 23 Dec 1968, a young LCPL USMC was on his 1st “real snoop and poop”. At around 0940 that morning, his squad began receiving sniper fire from 2 directions. From the right were obviously at least 2 AKs and from the left an additional one. 2 Marines were down. The young LCPL returned fire on the left because he thought he could see a target. Fire from the left stopped. 1 more Marine went down. All fire ceased......it was about 1000. A careful advance found empty brass on the right and a body with an SKS on the left. It was very obvious who had killed Sir Charles.....you see, only one man in the squad still had an M14.....the noob. The dead sniper was maybe 14-15......the LCPL had turned 18 in August. The young Marine was very embarrassed. He had wet his pants. But he did his job.
The dead sniper worked at the PX at Chu Lai.
That young Marine still dreams about this killing occasionally. Unfortunately it was the 1st of many.
I see him every morning in the mirror.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you haven’t been in combat, you cannot “feel” the pressure that exists. These Marines in Iraq may or may not have committed crimes. I served in combat zones 5 times. 3 in the Nam… Panama… and the Gulf War. I was hurt 3 times. Trust me when I say the pressure is there. I believe judgement should be witheld until the investigation is complete. The MSM and the world wants to damn us at every turn. Our own politicians seeking publicity simply fan the flames. How many new allegations of “murder” will now surface?I am deeply saddened that Murtha the Moonbat once wore the same uniform as did I.
I am proud that I never disgraced mine. Semper Fi
You know MasterGuns, I have been ‘in’ the Army since 1975 - worked for it, fed many of it, married two of ‘em and partied with alot of ‘em. It wasn’t until 1997 at Paris Island, that I was actually awed and bowled over by a military (yes, admit that the Navy can wow now and then - and their eats beat the Army and the Air Force certainly has nice homes, but . . .) when it came to pride, historical and ingrained - when my daughter received her anchor and globe there was not a dry eye among the 8 of us. My ex, my hubby and my son were all in uniform (the only other parent in uniform was a Marine) and we certainly stood out - but we Army ‘pogues’ were certainly very, very proud of our Marine that day.
I continue to be astounded that a Marine would backstab his fellow Marines in such a way. McCain & Kerry no longer surprize me - but Rep. Murtha really does - especially since he voted for the War. . . Maybe, just maybe if his ‘careless and bloodthirsty’ Marines were gassed, he’d actually believe that we had a ‘reason’ to be there (conviently forgetting the other 21 reasons) but alas I know liberals, facts and reality don’t matter to them. . .
Semper Fi
Murtha is proof our bodies regenerate every seven years. There simply cannot be even one particle of fighting marine left in that bloated moonbat parody of a veteran!
06/03/2006 at 02:11 PM
