I am amazed that both the network news and this article had the courage
to include the paragraph:

"Sites reported a Marine in the same unit had been killed just a day
earlier when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent."

What's a good soldier to do?

Let's see, the enemy will blow himself up when he is healthy in order to
kill me. The enemy will booby-trap his dead in order to kill me. Maybe,
just maybe he is willing to blow himself up with his dying breath in
order to kill me.

Hmmm, shall I get close enough to verify that he is, in fact, wounded
and wanting medical attention rather than booby-trapped or planning to
blow himself up in order to kill me?

Shall I believe that this person that has shown no regard for his own
life has now changed his mind and is willing to let me show him mercy
rather than kill me by killing himself?

Shall I risk making my wife a widow and my children fatherless in order
to keep from making his wife a widow and his children fatherless on the
small chance that he has had a drastic change of heart and ideals and no
longer thinks that blowing himself up and making his own wife a widow
and his own children fatherless is now a bad idea?

Has he made any indication (white flag, hands empty and in the open,
verbally stating surrender or asking for mercy, is he even able given
that he appears to be severely wounded) that he has had this change of
heart?

Or is this another tactic of the enemy (like pregnant women with bomb
belts) to lure me in close for the mutual kill.

Tough choice, you have only seconds to decide.

Wirt Atmar wrote:
> Steve writes:
>
>
>>This is so much bullshit I can't resist.
>
>
> From the Associated Press, today's "bullshit":
>
> ========================================
>
> washingtonpost.com
> U.S. to Probe Shooting of Wounded Iraqi
>
> By STEVEN R. HURST
> The Associated Press
> Tuesday, November 16, 2004; 3:25 AM
>
>
> NEW YORK - The U.S. military is investigating the videotaped fatal shooting
> of a wounded and apparently unarmed Iraqi prisoner by a U.S. Marine in a mosque
> in the former insurgent stronghold of Fallujah, a Marine spokesman said.
>
> The dramatic footage was taken Saturday by pool correspondent Kevin Sites of
> NBC television, who said three other prisoners wounded a day earlier in the
> mosque had also apparently been shot the next day by the Marines.
>
> The incident played out as the Marines 3rd Battalion, 1st Regiment, returned
> to the unidentified Fallujah mosque Saturday. Sites was embedded with the unit.
>
> Sites reported that a different Marine unit had come under fire from the
> mosque on Friday. Those Marines stormed the building, killing ten men and wounding
> five, Sites said. The Marines said the fighters in the mosque had been armed
> with rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47 rifles.
>
> The Marines had treated the wounded, he reported, left them behind and
> continued on Friday with their drive to retake the city from insurgents who have
> been battling U.S.-led occupation forces in Iraq with increasing ferocity and
> violence in recent months.
>
> The same five men were still in the mosque on Saturday, Sites reported.
>
> On the video, as the camera moved into the mosque during the Saturday
> incident, a Marine can be heard shouting obscenities in the background, yelling that
> one of the men was only pretending to be dead.
>
> The video then showed a Marine raising his rifle toward a prisoner lying on
> the floor of the mosque. The video shown by NBC and provided to the network
> pool was blacked out at that point and did not show the bullet hitting the man.
> But a rifle shot could be heard.
>
> The blacked out portion of the video tape, provided later to Associated Press
> Television News and other members of the network pool, showed the bullet
> striking the man in the upper body, possibly the head. His blood splatters on the
> wall behind him and his body goes limp.
>
> Sites reported a Marine in the same unit had been killed just a day earlier
> when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent.
>
> A spokesman at Marine Corps headquarters in the Pentagon, Maj. Doug Powell,
> said the incident was "being investigated." He had no further details, other
> than to confirm the incident happened on Saturday and that the Marines involved
> were part of the 1st Marine Division.
>
> On Tuesday, the U.S. military said in a statement that the 1st Marine
> Division is investigating an allegation of the unlawful use of force in the death of
> an enemy combatant in Fallujah during combat operations on Saturday.
>
> The Marine has been withdrawn from the battlefield pending the results of the
> investigation, the U.S. military said.
>
> "We follow the law of armed conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of
> accountability," said Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, commanding general of the 1st
> Marine Expeditionary Force. "The facts of this case will be thoroughly
> pursued to make an informed decision and to protect the rights of all persons
> involved."
>
> Lt. Col. Bob Miller, who NBC said is heading the investigation, told the
> network that the rules of engagement allow the use of force in self-defense.
>
> "Any wounded - in this case insurgents - who don't pose a threat would not be
> considered hostile," said Miller.
>
> The events on the videotape began as some of the Marines from the unit
> accompanied by Sites approached the mosque on Saturday, a day after it was stormed
> by other Marines.
>
> Gunfire can be heard from inside the mosque, and at its entrance, Marines who
> were already in the building emerge. They are asked by an approaching Marine
> lieutenant if there were insurgents inside and if the Marines had shot any of
> them. A Marine can be heard responding affirmatively. The lieutenant then asks
> if they were armed and fellow Marine shrugs.
>
> Sites' account said the wounded men, who he said were prisoners and who were
> hurt in the previous day's attack, had been shot again by the Marines on the
> Saturday visit.
>
> The videotape showed two of the wounded men propped against the wall and
> Sites said they were bleeding to death. According to his report, a third wounded
> man appeared already dead, while a fourth was severely wounded but breathing.
> The fifth was covered by a blanket but did not appear to have been shot again
> after the Marines returned. It was the fourth man who was shown being shot.
>
> The CNN broadcast of the pictures used pixilation to cover parts of the video
> that could lead to public identification of the Marines involved.
>
> NBC's Robert Padavick told members of the U.S. television pool that the
> Pentagon had ordered NBC and other pool members to make sure the Marine's identity
> was hidden because "they (the military authorities) are anticipating a
> criminal investigation as a result of this incident and do not want to implicate
> anybody ahead of that."
>
> In New York, NBC spokeswoman Allison Gollust said the network did not
> broadcast the prisoner being shot because of the "graphic nature" of the video.
>
>
> © 2004 The Associated Press
>
> ========================================
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
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