Yet, most of the American public are going to associate the Mosque shooting with the action.
The MSM will play this to DEATH.
I would like to comment on that.
Prior to the invasion, since the invasion, and even today, American PSYOPS and Civil Affairs units have been teaching Iraqis how to surrender to our forces.
We have dropped hundreds of millions of surrender leaflets over every populated and unpopulated area in Iraq for over ten years. We have continuous radio broadcasts, newspapers, police, civil servants everywhere teaching people what to do to survive when caught in a firefight. We went to extreme lengths to both inform and protect the population of Falluja prior to the recent attack.
I am not going to say much on the Marine's actions because the film was not conclusive to me. I will say this. From the limited clip I saw, I would not have hesitated to shoot the entire group laying against that wall. In the film clip, none of them showed any compliance with surrender directions. None of them showed any sign of cooperation with instructions provided.
This was an assault on a known enemy position that had just killed one and wounded five American troops. This was war not an ID check.
I was a Special Forces Captain and "A" Team Commander for three years overseas and had many more years on "A" teams in lessor positions. I spent a total of 11 years overseas. Seven of those years I was on an "A" Team. If my team was clearing that building and people were not following the prescribed rules for surrender, they would all be dead when we walked out the back door. The only exception would be kids and infants and then only if reasonably possible to avoid them. When we left, that building would be safe for follow on forces.
Behind that assault force there were follow on intelligence and other forces including medics, etc. Without surrendering, we would never have left those folks there for the follow-on troops to contend with.
If they had no weapons in sight or at least off to the side or at their feet, hands on head or raised in full view, and/or said what they had been taught to say, they would be alive. Otherwise in the heat of battle they are to be construed as combatants.
There were many people in that group. I saw not a single one indicating a desire to surrender. If what I saw on TV is accurate, that Marine should be chewed out...not for killing one...but for not killing them all.
If convicted, that Marine should get John Kerry for a prison roommate. Kerry shot a wounded soldier in the back, killed him, and bragged about it for 35 years.
War is hell.
unclewest |
