A US Marine is under investigation for the shooting of an unarmed Iraqi. A US reporter embedded with the Marines filmed the shooting of a wounded, possibly unarmed Iraqi. The video is available online, of course and has been shown, unedited by Al Jazeera. The usual voices are screaming about the US being no better than the Taliban, etc.
Give me a minute... oh yeah... the unarmed Iraqi was in a mosque (not saying his prayers) shooting RPGs and AK47s at the Marines. The Marine who is shown shooting the Iraqi was shot and wounded the day before the video was taken. The Iraqi was on the floor, leaning against the wall and was obviously wounded. The Marines had just lost one of their own when a hidden grenade exploded underneath a wounded Iraqi.
All the arguments about war crimes can go out the window. Frankly, I don't really care what the Geneva conventions say. The US is the only the country on this earth that even remotely follows the rules. In case you missed the last couple of wars, US soldiers who are captured are beaten, burned, tortured, denied food, denied medicine and publicly executed. Enemy combatants are usually (there are certainly exceptions) provided with first aid by US soldiers and flown away from the fighting in US helicopters and healed in US hospitals and given US medicine and fed US food and generally live better as POWs than they did before they began fighting the US. So, I don't have too much compassion for this dead Iraqi because I know what happens when the tables are turned. If this Iraqi had come upon our wounded Marine the Marine would be lucky to get a bullet in the head. So, don't lecture me about war crimes.
I don't want US soldiers losing the disciplines of trained soldiers. I don't want civilians to be raped, tortured and killed. I don't want to see US Marines beheading Iraqis who are chained and begging for their lives. I want our Marines to be better than our enemies. That's part of us being the good guys and them being the bad guys.
Now, what about this Marine? Pull him off the front line, remind of the rules that we choose to play by and then send him back into the fight. He could very well have saved his life and the lives of those around him had that wounded Iraqi been holding a grenade and just waiting for the Marines to get close enough. He could have saved his life and the lives of those around him if the wounded Iraqi had lived to fight another day.
These Iraqis are our enemies. They are trying their best to kill us. They will not hesitate to use a mosque as a gun turret, to use an infant as a shield or to use their last breath and a grenade to kill and maim Americans. They will proudly videotape themselves cutting off the heads of civilians, men and women who are working to bring running water, electricity and medicine to the Iraqi people.
The Marine in the videotape is in the midst of this life and death struggle. He understands war. It's brutal. It's ugly. People die in war. Today was not his day to die. Today it was the Iraqi's day to die. The Marine got one more minute, one more hour, one more day and maybe, he could come home to a wife who misses him and kids who cry for their daddy. He better find this country welcoming him home IF he gets home.
A couple of thoughts and I'm done... for today. The Marine commanders who lead these young men into battle have one ultimate measurement for a successful mission: NO DEAD MARINES. And finally a word from General Patton. "The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."
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