Get Off Their Backs

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

From Reuters:

U.S. Marines rallied round a comrade under investigation for killing a wounded Iraqi during the offensive in Falluja, saying he was probably under combat stress in unpredictable, hair-trigger circumstances.

Marines interviewed on Tuesday said they didn't see the shooting as a scandal, rather the act of a comrade who faced intense pressure during the effort to quell the insurgency in the city.

"I can see why he would do it. He was probably running around being shot at for days on end in Falluja. There should be an investigation but they should look into the circumstances," said Lance Corporal Christopher Hanson.

"I would have shot the insurgent too. Two shots to the head," said Sergeant Nicholas Graham, 24, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "You can't trust these people. He should not be investigated. He did nothing wrong."
Of course the anti-American world press is jumping all over this story, casually omitting the fact that just a day earlier the marine in question lost a fellow soldier who was attending to a dead insurgent that was booby-trapped with explosives.

Add the tactic of booby-trapping your own dead to the effective suicide bombings, and it's clear to say that the Geneva Convention isn't on the minds of the insurgents. For that I believe the Marines should handle dead and wounded insurgents by any means necessary to ensure their own safety and prevent a possible ambush. I'm no fan of this war either, but it irks me to no end reading and listening to civilian opinions on how soldiers should conduct themselves in hostile war zones from their comfortable recliners.

To the world press and everyone else who despises the United States: You don't have to like our president or those operating this war, but get off the backs of the 18, 19 and 20 year-olds thrown into a situation you will never see or have to encounter. I've got too many friends in Iraq right now I want to see come home alive and well, and I will support them at every opportunity.

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