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Imagine the moment in Falluja

November 20, 2004

You know the story by now: a US Marine in Falluja encounters a wounded Iraqi in a room.  Someone asks “Is he dead?”  He shoots the wounded man in the face, and says; “He’s dead now.”  An NBC camera man gets it on tape.  Now everyone in the Arab world watches the brutal scene, over and over…

The US is “investigating” to “determine if the Marine violated the rules of war.” 

My heart goes out to that soldier.  Try to imagine: you’re in a battle that lasts for days.  Utterly exhausted, you survive only because your adrenalin-ravaged autonomic nervous system still functions on some level.  One day, you’re wounded in the face, and on the same day, one of your fellow soldiers is killed as a wounded insurgent turns out to be booby-trapped.  The next day, you stand in that dead soldier’s place, examining a wounded insurgent who …might… be booby-trapped. 

Drained of emotion, not expecting to live to see home ever again, you elect to survive another hour: you shoot him.  You report factually: “He’s dead now.”  The room falls quiet for a moment as gunfire and explosions continue outside.  The CBS reporter puts down his camera, a shocked look on his face.

The soldier has been “removed from battle pending an investigation.”  People in nice clean clothes, who had plenty of sleep the night before, a choice of breakfast, coffee, and time to read the morning paper,will decide if he was guilty of “violating the rules of battle” in the one or two seconds he had to make his decision.

Imagine being in that soldier’s place then

Good discussion on Mostly Cajun here and here

Categories: News
  1. Earl
    November 21, 2004 at 22:06 | #1

    :question: Well, are they the “rules” of war, or not?  Do they change depending on which side you are on?  If it is “insurgent” vs. the coalition of the (willing/coerced/stupid, your choice of adjective), what is the judgment?

    To analyze such a turn of events in its own vacuum is counter productive.  The REAL question is about war as an instrument of change.

  2. November 22, 2004 at 10:26 | #2

    To analyze such a turn of events in its own vacuum is counter productive.  The REAL question is about war as an instrument of change.

    The real question about what?  About geopolitics, terrorism, etc.; sure.  I’ve written about that in other posts.

    This post is about that exhausted soldier, and the second-guessing prosecution he faces – not to mention crucifixion in the press.

  3. MrsDoF
    November 23, 2004 at 09:54 | #3

    Although it pains me to say so, Bill O’Reilly writes about this and Agrees with you about the soldier in combat.  And Kathleen Parker in her column brought tears to my eyes about imbedded reporters and fighting in a mosque (which is Against the “rules” of war) and young men growing old and callous and battle-weary too soon. 
    This is a war of lunatics against us.  Our people are doing the best they can, given the situation around them.

  4. QuestionableLogic
    November 28, 2004 at 01:42 | #4

    “This is a war of lunatics against us”

    I’m not sure which war you’re talking about.  I’m sorry, but I can’t possibly see how that soldier there is fighting for you, whoever you are and wherever you’re from (I’ll assume America). 

    I don’t ever remember Iraq being a threat to the US.  Or at least, they weren’t such a big threat that warranted action before 9/11 (and how many Iraqi’s were on those planes?). 

    Nor were they reaching such a capability with the crippling sanctions that affected the sick and starving people more than the cushy Iraqi government, but nonetheless kept the entire country poor and incapbable of any kind of development, militaristic or otherwise.  Now, those sick and starving people also have to deal with rubble, bullets, vandalism, bombings, and “callous and battle-weary” soldiers.  But, I digress.

    That poor soldier there is fighting for all the wrong reasons, and my heart and my uttermost deep sympathies go out to him and his family, as well as every other soldier there.  I wonder if half of them even know why they’re fighting there.  That question must have crossed their minds amid the bullets and bombs. 

    If they were told, like everyone else in America, that they were fighting for the freedom of the Iraqi people, or against terror, or to find WMDs (the latter two having already been discredited by even the most conservative media) then they must be awfully confused as to why they’re getting shot at and killed from practically every angle, and why a war they were told they won over a year ago is still killing all their soldier buddies around them.

    Please, Mrs. DoF, let’s not confuse this war as some kind of defensive measure where that soldier is protecting your life or the American way or anything else of yours which those “lunatics” in Iraq are threatening.  This war is about our President keeping his promises to some very powerful people, and that poor battle-weary soldier is just a pawn.

  5. momma
    December 2, 2004 at 10:59 | #5

    The emotions that well up everytime I think of this situation in Iraq are anger, futility, and helplessness.  My first thought is we don’t belong there.  There was no legitimate reason to attack that country.  The WMD thing was an excuse to play great leader. It was a lie that wasn’t investigated fully enough. But the men and women that are in danger or dieing over there don’t deserve having to sacrifice to make our leaders look good to the public and other countries. We hear that they want freedom, a democracy like us. The truth is they and the other countries of that region don’t want to be like us.
      My fear is that we are slowly turning into a society like their’s. Too many people are trying to twist the truth.  Too many are trying to force ideals that don’t hold true for everyone on everyone.
    Stop America! Look what is going on around you! The proverty, crime, the ignorance that is decaying a great nation from within.  Call for your leaders to turn their attention to their own backyards before more die, more turn to apathy, and more just throw their hands up and learn to live as sheep waiting for slaughter! 

  6. December 2, 2004 at 14:57 | #6

    I’m with ya, Momma.  I still can’t stand to see that soldier vilified in the press given everything he went through.  His action was reasonable given the situation he’d been put in.  It was the situation – which was neither his fault or responsibility – that was unreasonable.

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