Sending "others" to war

It has been decided that a United States Marine will stand trial for "unpremeditated murder and dereliction of duty" for apparently killing an unarmed Iraqi militant in Fallujah in 2004. Are you kidding me? We not only are sending people to war to "defend" our country, we are now also trying to send them to prison for murders that occurred in a war zone while they were carrying out their missions. C'mon, people.

I am admittedly biased. I have two younger brothers who are active duty Marines. One spent six months in Iraq last year. I don't hear much about what goes on over there from him; it isn't something he likes to talk about. I know my brother, and his relative silence means that the stuff that really goes on over there is beyond not good.

Guess what? War ain't pretty and it ain't for everybody. But somebody has to do it. Somebody that stands up and says "Send me." Somebody that does that and then does his or her best to make the correct split second decisions while storming one of the most heavily guarded and fortified cities of the entire conflict should be applauded. Making a wrong decision under these circumstances is just one of those things that should be swept under the rug. We should not be criminalizing killing bad guys during war.

This happened in November 2004. This makes it during the Second Battle of Fallujah or "Operation Phantom Fury". The U.S. and Iraqi Security Forces stormed Fallujah where 4000-5000 buttheads were waiting to kill us. We had 5000-10000 combat troops. Those are pretty blasted even numbers when you think about the kind of resistance we normally encounter. We lost 95 soldiers in this battle and had 560 wounded. Admittedly, we did better than the bad guys (which is a good thing!), as they lost somewhere around 1350 people. And we took 1500 prisoners. Point is, this was a very, very hot combat zone during these few months. Marines were literally moving from house to house fighting the insurgency.

Here is a blib from CNN from this battle (Tues, Nov 16, 2004):

"Friday, the Marines were fired upon by snipers and insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades from a mosque and an adjacent building. The Marines returned fire with tank shells and machine guns.

They eventually stormed the mosque, killing 10 insurgents and wounding five others, and showing off a cache of rifles and grenades for journalists.

The Marines told the pool reporter that the wounded men would be left behind for others to pick up and move to the rear for treatment. But Saturday, another squad of Marines found that the mosque had been reoccupied by insurgents and attacked it again, only to find the same wounded men inside."

So back to today's news. Apparently, some Marines stormed a house, finding weapons and capturing four men. The platoon commander radioed asking if the Iraqis were dead yet. The four men ended up dead, and Sgt. Ryan Weemer has been charged with "one count of murder and six counts of dereliction of duty encompassing failure to follow the rules of engagement in Fallujah and failing to follow standard operating procedures for apprehending or treating detainees or civilian prisoners of war." (from MSNBC article)

These charges seem wrong to me, though there are admittedly very few details. I'm sorry, but this just stinks of war. Much worse has been done, and much worse is being done. If you ask me, Sgt. Weemer is partly to blame for his current legal trouble as he volunteered information when applying to a Secret Service position. I don't blame him for doing what was done, though. If you close your eyes and envision what the situation must have been like; the chaos, bullets flying, constant gunfire, very close quarters, invading enemy territory, RPG explosions, overturned cars, not seeing your enemy, trying to keep track of your friends, everything moving so fast... No, I can't say I wouldn't have reacted the same way.

I think that war is a very bad place to be. We cannot be holding our soldiers to standards that are near impossible. We can't have soldiers second-guessing themselves at critical times. The vast majority of the time, they make the right decisions. They took more prisoners during this battle then people that were killed. That is a testament to the skill and training and split-second decision making capabilities of our soldiers.

Now let's remember what the deal is here and go kill Osama!

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