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Haditha Unraveled

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report incorrectly failed to identify the shooters as members of the Kilo company. NEWSWEEK regrets the error.

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handapeye,

These guys were not being fired upon at the time they were throwing grenades into these houses. According to Wuterich, they were shot at, earlier, from someone in the vicinity of the neighborhood. They were not defending themselves from an attack. At the time they were attacking these homes, no one was firing from any of the three houses. The first two houses had children, women, infants and NO WEAPONS (2 AKs were found in the 3rd house). Those Marines did NOT apply the rules of engagement and just started shooting in homes without knowing who was in them. Wuterich confirmed this on his 60 Minutes interview.

This is not a case where US Marines were under fire (yes there was a roadside bomb that went off PREVIOUSLY and some small arms fire PREVIOUSLY) and reacted in the heat of battle like some would have you believe. These guys made a conscious effort, in a combat environment but not under direct fire, to not applying any Rules of Engagement, and just shoot into houses without knowing what they were killing. It's no surprise after this blatant disregard for any rules, that innocent children, infants, women, and potentially men (some may have been insurgents, who knows but they were unarmed ones) were murdered.

If I was allowed to throw grenades or shoot into any house that I thought an insurgent might be, I could essentially start killing at will with no regard to anyone because insurgents could be anywhere. We don't fight by those rules. We hold ourselves to a standard and that standard is not killing anytime we feel like it.

That's not the American Way. We're professionals (your son included). Our rules of engagement do not allow that. You have to ID a target or at least ID the threat shooting from the house that you are engaging. The first two houses had no weapons. They couldn't have been firing from those houses.

Your son has an extremely tough job to do out there. I'm sure you're proud of him and want to see him come home. He may be caught in situations where he has to make a snap judgement and shooting at something while under fire is very likely and that might kill civilians. I doubt anyone will have any issues with someone in that situation who had to make a life or death decision and made the best call they could and some civs got killed.

That is not this situation and I would caution anyone attempting to make it appear to be otherwise.

I would like for QuestionEverything to tell me exactly our soldiers are supposed to IDENTIFY the terrorists? Does Q/E think they wear headscarves with a big red "T" on them? How many times have our men been fired upon from a house? or from a mosque? As far as I am concerned, if a terrorist fires at me from anywhere, it is fair game. If I am being ahot at from a house, I am shooting back at the place the bullets are coming from.
All of these bleeding hearts have never given a thought to that the Iraqi civilians know who the terrorists are. They know when they come into their homes with their weapons, that they are going to be trying to kill someone. If you don't want to get shot, , , LEAVE, , , tell someone in authority WHO the killers are.
I have a son in Iraq. As the old cliche' goes,, , , , , , , I would MUCH rather him be judged by 12 than carried by 6.

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Posted By: Aykee @ 03/28/2008 3:48:59 PM

Put all the US GI's under arrest. They all have blood on their hands. Who killed all the 1 million civilians in Iraq? The time will come, when you will be judged. This US army is a bunch of criminals and there is nothing to be proud of these ruthless, immoral guys.
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Posted By: QuestionEverything @ 11/13/2007 4:06:10 PM

handapeye,

These guys were not being fired upon at the time they were throwing grenades into these houses. According to Wuterich, they were shot at, earlier, from someone in the vicinity of the neighborhood. They were not defending themselves from an attack. At the time they were attacking these homes, no one was firing from any of the three houses. The first two houses had children, women, infants and NO WEAPONS (2 AKs were found in the 3rd house). Those Marines did NOT apply the rules of engagement and just started shooting in homes without knowing who was in them. Wuterich confirmed this on his 60 Minutes interview.

This is not a case where US Marines were under fire (yes there was a roadside bomb that went off PREVIOUSLY and some small arms fire PREVIOUSLY) and reacted in the heat of battle like some would have you believe. These guys made a conscious effort, in a combat environment but not under direct fire, to not applying any Rules of Engagement, and just shoot into houses without knowing what they were killing. It's no surprise after this blatant disregard for any rules, that innocent children, infants, women, and potentially men (some may have been insurgents, who knows but they were unarmed ones) were murdered.

If I was allowed to throw grenades or shoot into any house that I thought an insurgent might be, I could essentially start killing at will with no regard to anyone because insurgents could be anywhere. We don't fight by those rules. We hold ourselves to a standard and that standard is not killing anytime we feel like it.

That's not the American Way. We're professionals (your son included). Our rules of engagement do not allow that. You have to ID a target or at least ID the threat shooting from the house that you are engaging. The first two houses had no weapons. They couldn't have been firing from those houses.

Your son has an extremely tough job to do out there. I'm sure you're proud of him and want to see him come home. He may be caught in situations where he has to make a snap judgement and shooting at something while under fire is very likely and that might kill civilians. I doubt anyone will have any issues with someone in that situation who had to make a life or death decision and made the best call they could and some civs got killed.

That is not this situation and I would caution anyone attempting to make it appear to be otherwise.
- Reply
- Report Abuse
Posted By: handapeye @ 11/12/2007 3:42:35 PM

I would like for QuestionEverything to tell me exactly our soldiers are supposed to IDENTIFY the terrorists? Does Q/E think they wear headscarves with a big red "T" on them? How many times have our men been fired upon from a house? or from a mosque? As far as I am concerned, if a terrorist fires at me from anywhere, it is fair game. If I am being ahot at from a house, I am shooting back at the place the bullets are coming from.
All of these bleeding hearts have never given a thought to that the Iraqi civilians know who the terrorists are. They know when they come into their homes with their weapons, that they are going to be trying to kill someone. If you don't want to get shot, , , LEAVE, , , tell someone in authority WHO the killers are.
I have a son in Iraq. As the old cliche' goes,, , , , , , , I would MUCH rather him be judged by 12 than carried by 6.