Ignoring the fact for a moment, that the video makes it perfectly clear that there was no danger in that room,
Ah, yes, so easy to say while seated in front of a computer, drinking coffee, munching on a hot croissant after a restful sleep, not having the adrenaline flowing, not having been shot at, hoping not to get kidnapped and decapitated, yes, so easy, such sublime objectivity.
Yes, watching the video is all you need to see to make up your mind.
Interesting that the buzz in the media, not to mention here, is all about the Marine, not the thugs who are now disemboweling women so brutally that not even usually sensationalistic Al-Jezeera is willing to show the video because it is "too gruesome."
There is a legal prohibition in the Koran against killing women. No word anywhere about that.
Judgments from afar are so easy to make, especially when the circumstances don't really matter.
Perhaps the Marine knew about these kinds of things:
mercurynews.com
Two men from region killed in Iraq
FAMILIES IN LIVE OAK, GILROY MOURN 19TH AND 20TH CASUALTIES FROM GREATER BAY AREA
By Chuck Carroll, Sandra Gonzales and Ken McLaughlin
Mercury News
As the war continued to take its toll, parents in Live Oak and Gilroy learned this week that their only sons had been killed in Iraq.
Marine Lance Cpl. Jeramy Ailes, 22, of Gilroy was killed Monday in Al-Fallujah by small arms fire.
``They had finished mopping up in Fallujah and they went back to double-check on some insurgents. From what we gathered, somebody playing possum jumped up and shot him,' said his father, Joel Ailes, who learned of his death Monday evening. ``It's extremely hard.'
In Live Oak, outside Santa Cruz, just hours after Hipolito and Yolanda Perez returned from a visit to Camp Pendleton, where Marine Cpl. Andres Perez and his 19-year-old sister, Elvira, were based, they learned their son was dead.
The 21-year-old Santa Cruz native had been killed Sunday by an enemy bomb in Al-Fallujah as his infantry unit retook the city from insurgents in preparation for January's Iraqi elections.
``It was too much all at once,' 24-year-old Sandra Perez, Andres' sister, said of seeing the three Marines in the family's home on Harbor Oaks Circle. ``When we saw them standing there, we kind of knew what they were doing here.'
Joel Ailes' son joined the Marines two years ago. Al-Fallujah was his second tour. He had returned from An-Nasiriyah in April after several months only to be sent again in June to Al-Fallujah. He was due to come home at the end of January.
``Jeramy was the type of person who wanted to help other people. He didn't want to go in to kill people,' said Joel Ailes.
His first time in Iraq, Jeramy Ailes gave $10 to each child he came across because he knew it would feed their families for 30 days. This time, he asked his family to mail as many soccer balls as they could. His family sent 300 balls, and Jeramy Ailes' platoon handed them out to children.
``He was a very caring person, everything about him was about the kids and helping people, he thought he could make a difference,' his father said.
Joel Ailes warmly remembered the last conversation he had with his son last month, in which Jeramy Ailes recounted how he had come across a large man walking with a 12-year-old girl carrying a huge bale of straw on her back.
His son, who spoke and read Arabic, exchanged words with the man. And, for the next seven miles, his son carried the girl on his back and the man carried the bales of straw. ``That was my son,' Joel Ailes said.
During that same phone call, Ailes said, his son told him that he was worried about the Al-Fallujah offenses and said that he would probably not be able to call for another two to three weeks.
``But he said, `When I get home, I just want to go snowboarding,' ' Joel Ailes said.
Jeramy Ailes, who was based in Camp Pendleton, also served as a medic for his platoon.
Andres Perez joined the Marines in 2001 right out of Harbor High School and was a member of the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division.
Sandra Perez said her family last spoke to her brother a couple of weeks ago. He told them he would take part in the assault on Al-Fallujah.
``He always sounded real cheerful; he always sounded good. He always assured us he was coming back, and we were so sure of it,' Sandra said. In his last letter, which the family read Sunday at Camp Pendleton, Perez said he was sorry he'd be missing Thanksgiving with the family and looked forward to coming home.
He joined the Marines to bring discipline to his life and to get a college education. He had expressed an interest in going into law enforcement.
He also had a close relationship with a woman attending college in Virginia. They talked about possibly getting married after he got out of the service in July.
On Tuesday, Sandra Perez's clearest memory was of her brother's penchant for singing traditional Mexican mariachi songs.
``Even some of his military friends who didn't speak Spanish, he would teach them the lyrics and get them to sing with him,' she said. ``He was very proud of his roots.'
Perez and Ailes are the 19th and 20th soldiers from the greater Bay Area to die in Iraq. |
