SwiftVets.com

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“Murder” In Fallujah
By Michael Tank
(Submitted to News & Views by Mr. Tank )

Forever looking for that ambrosial angle, a newspaper reporter ventures into a local VFW hall to get some views
from our Veteran’s of previous wars, on the story of a Marine shooting a wounded insurgent in Fallujah. Looking
around in the dimly lit, smoke filled bar the reporter eyes a man sitting alone at a table nursing a long necked bottle of
beer. Quickly sizing up the lone drinker, the reporter estimated that the man was in his late sixties or early seventies
and in good health, which would also equate to having an able mind, or so he thinks, and thus figures that this old
guy may just be what he is looking for. He moves over to the table and while noticing that the man is wearing a
baseball cap that states, “Retired Marine” yet he still asks, “Excuse me sir, are you a Veteran?”

The Marine slowly looks up at the younger reporter, eyeing him with some disdain and replies, “Well, I wouldn’t be in
here if I wasn’t.”

The interview has not gotten off to a good start.

Reporter: “Could I ask you a few questions on the recent events in Fallujah?”

Marine: “And who might you be?”

Reporter: “ I am a reporter for the local paper.”

Marine: “And what, praise be, are we reporting on today?”

Reporter: “ Well Sir, I am reporting on the war in Iraq, specifically on the recent incident which occurred in Fallujah.”

Marine: “I’d say that a better place to report on Fallujah would be in Iraq, not here, wouldn’t you?”

The reporter was beginning to regret his choice of Veterans.

Reporter: “Well Sir, I was hoping to get the views of former combat Veterans about the murder of a wounded and helpless insurgent by a Marine that was taped by NBC.”

Marine: “Is that right?”

Reporter: “Yes……sir.”

Marine: “Well let’s make something clear. I don’t like or trust reporters, and I don’t think you would like what I have to say about it.”

Reporter: “If it is alright with you, Sir, I would still like to get your views on the incident.”

Marine: “Well sit down then.”

Reporter: “Thank you. Is it alright to tape our conversation?” With the Marine’s hand wave gesture, the reporter turned on his tape recorder. “First can you tell me about yourself, when you served and where, were you in combat?”

Marine: “I thought you wanted to hear about the murder of your helpless insurgent?”

Reporter: “Yes Sir, but first I need some background to insure that you are qualified, you know have some experience in this sort of thing.”

Marine: “Is that right?”

Reporter: “ Ah, yes sir.”

Marine: “I served for twenty years in the Marine Corps and fought in Korea and Vietnam with Grunt units of the 1st Marine Division.

I retired as a Gunnery Sergeant. Does that qualify me for this sort of thing?”

Reporter: “Yes Sir.” Now feeling he might have a winner here after all. “Sir, did you see the tape or read reports about the Marine who shot the wounded insurgent?”

Marine: “You forgot helpless.” Pausing, then seeing that his sarcasm had not registered with the young man, “ Yes I have seen the tape and read about it.”

Reporter: “Well Sir, what do you think they should do to the Marine who killed this wounded, helpless individual?”

Marine: “Promote him.”

Reporter: “Sir?”

Marine: “Alright, first of all stop calling me sir, I was a Gunnery Sergeant not an officer which means I worked for a living. If you must, call me Gunny or Jack, as my friends do. Second, you heard me right, I said promote the little son of a b…., the Marine. If he was a Lance Corporal, make him a Corporal, if a Corporal, make him a Sergeant. The kid was doing his job, protecting himself and his fellow Marines and killing the enemy. That is what they sent him into Fallujah to do by the way.”

Reporter: “But Sir…, I mean Gunny, he killed a helpless man!”

Marine: “Helpless? By who’s account? Who says he was helpless, because he was wounded? Hell don’t you watch the movies Mac? That old cliché of your helpless, wounded enemy killing his captors is one even Hollywood managed to get right. I saw it happen too many times, only there wasn’t any of you press boys around to make a big deal of it. Once you see one of your own killed because he hesitated around a helpless, wounded enemy, you learn not to take chances. It’s called war son, and it’s something you civvies will never understand.”

Reporter: Brightening up, thinking he may have the real, untold story of American atrocities about to unfold, “Are you telling me that in Korea and Vietnam Marines, Americans, had a policy of killing wounded?”

Marine: “Now we’re getting to why you are really here aren’t we. I read your paper, not because it is informative but because I believe in the old axiom, know your enemies. You are here hoping to get a story about Americans killing helpless wounded soldiers in past wars and or, you wanted to get some of us old timers to condemn what this Marine did in Fallujah. You’re barking up the wrong tree, Mac, and you don’t even have a scent for where the right tree might be.”

Reporter: “Maybe I should explain to you Gunny that I am a combat veteran too. I covered the Gulf War and was in Baghdad last July.”

Marine: “Is that right, where you ever in the Armed Forces?”

Reporter: “Well no.”

Marine: “Then you are NOT a combat Veteran, you’re a combat correspondent, there’s a hell of a difference, although I’ll give you some credit for having the guts to go where you’ve been, but don’t ever think that the two are the same.”

Reporter: “Well, all that aside, are you telling me that American troops have a policy of killing wounded enemy soldiers?”

Marine: “What are you searching for? You want to talk about this young Marine or do you want to paint all the American Veterans as war criminals?”

Reporter: “I just want to get this story right.”

Marine: “Is that right. Right by who’s account? You boys sure didn’t care to get it right about Vietnam. Look, I don’t know you from Adam but by the fact that you work for that rag I would have to determine that your mind was set on what was right when you walked into this joint. If I didn’t think it would be a waste of my time I would try to tell you what’s right.”

Reporter: “Well then Gunny, tell me how I’m wrong.”

Marine: “All right, to begin with the people we are fighting are not insurgents, neither are they rebels, soldiers or patriots. They are terrorists, plain and simple, murderers for their own cause. You press boys calling them anything else but murderers or terrorists are just giving unwarranted credence to them and their cause. Like when you labeled Vietnam a civil war, called the Viet Cong, freedom fighters. You boys like to play with words to change the true meaning of things.”

Reporter: “Okay, I don’t agree but go on.”

Marine: “Of course you don’t agree, it doesn’t fit your prospective of what the world is today and how the evil American Empire is trying to rule it.”

Reporter: “So I am wrong when I say the we should not even be in Iraq?”

Marine: “I thought we were talking about this young Marine? You don’t want to get off the track here and get into an argument with me about the war in Iraq. For one thing whether we should be there or not has nothing to do with the situation this Marine now finds himself in, or what you asked me about. That Marine had no say in where he was going, but now that he is there he has every right to do whatever needs to be done to get himself and his fellow Marines the hell out of there alive.”

Reporter: “Including murder?”

Marine: “Oh bull****, knock it off. You talk like this kid just woke up from a peaceful nights sleep, walked out the front door of his home in a two hundred thousand dollar a house neighborhood, found a wounded man on his driveway laying next to your morning paper and shot the man in cold blood. Try to imagine combat, you said you were embedded with our troops once; you must have some idea of what it was like for those kids. Or did you do all your reporting from the Baghdad Hilton?”

Reporter: “I saw my share of fireworks.”

Marine: “Okay, but did you talk to the troops, did you get to know any of them?

Reporter: “A few.”

Marine: “Yeah, and what was it that you didn’t like about them? Did you find them so different from you or other Americans? I can never understand how you press boys can look us Marines in the eye, smile, talk to us like your only here to tell our side of the story and then go home and write all this anti-American BS about war atrocities. You use these kids as pawns for your own agendas or to get at the current administration. It never ceases to amaze me that it doesn’t even matter who is running the country either, Democrats or Republicans are all fair game, whoever is in office must be condemned and criticized. It’s strictly business for you jokers, and business is always good. Only in the process you smear our Veterans and steal the honor of their service.”

Reporter: “We only report what we see.”

Marine: “No, you report things as you see them is what you mean. All right, you say you saw your share of fireworks, so unlike most civilians, you have some idea what these kids go through. So you just close your eyes and try to put yourself in this Marine’s boots for a while. You should know that urban warfare is the most dangerous, nerve-wracking and difficult kind of battle someone can find himself involved in. I went through it in Seoul and at Hue. Every corner, every door, every window and rooftop hides the unknown, the deadly unknown, and you, Marine, have to turn that corner, kick down that door, look into that window and climb up onto that rooftop. You never know when or where the enemy is hiding. But what you do know is that one slip up or hesitation could mean the end of your life or that of your friends. I don’t know the history of this Marine’s prior days before this incident, but we do know this, he was wounded the day before and had lost some fellow Marines to these insurgents. He and his buddies had been fighting house to house for eight days and nights and now he walks into a room from where just minutes before they were receiving fire. He, now you, find some dead guys and some not so dead guys, all of them just minutes before were trying to kill you and yours. You have been sent into Fallujah after months of these rag headed bastards sniping at you and yours
and their boasting to everyone that they were prepared to fight you unto death. You have been told by your ommanding Officers and NCO’s to help them to keep their word. After eight days and nights of constant close-in fighting, one of these bastards moves, you shoot him to protect yourself and your fellow Marines. All is fine, you and your buddies are still alive and another enemy terrorist has gone to his after life to disappoint all his waiting virgins. Your war torn world is in the right place for now, except over there in the corner is an NBC camera crew who is now claiming that you just shot a helpless, wounded insurgent and can’t wait to get their tape on the air. It doesn’t matter that this Marine was right to react the way he did and possibly saved himself and some of his fellow Marines, all that matters is that this murder, as you called it, was caught on film.”

Reporter: “So what do you think should happen to this Marine and what do you think will happen to him?”

Marine: “I told you, promote him. He did his job, for all he knew that wounded insurgent was just as deadly as an unwounded one. He came out of the situation with his life intact along with his buddies. Everyone who has been in combat knows that a wounded enemy is more dangerous than one who is not. The kid did good.”

Reporter: “So what do you think will happen now?”

Marine: “What should have happened is nothing. It was an act of war and should have only been dealt with by that young Marine within his own conscious. But with that tape and the press on his ass and that of his commanding officers, claiming that it was an atrocity, there will be an investigation. Instead of that promotion he will be smacked down, maybe even busted or worse case, imprisoned. Only with this kid there will be no ACLU lawyers claiming his civil rights have been violated like you see with the cop killers. It really is a shame; he is probably a damn good Marine. I know I wouldn’t mind having him beside me in a foxhole in battle. He used good judgment and may have saved his own life and that of his buddies. Another bad effect is that if they put this Marine down, then other Marines may start to second guess themselves, especially with film crews around. And that could lead to unnecessary casualties.”

Reporter: “Do you think that if this Marine gets punished that other Marines will refuse to fight?”

Marine: Looking at the reporter as if he is from another planet, “Hell no, they’re Marines. If this kid gets punished, those Marines will complain, *****, grumble and move on. They’ll pack this load of ********* in their sea bags and carry it along with them as the serve and fight as usual. Who the hell do you think we’re talking about here, the French Army? Marines serve, they don’t mutiny.”

Reporter: “So you are saying that nothing should happen to this Marine for killing this man?”

Marine: “You know, I am wasting my time, and it’s my beer drinking time to boot. Like I said, the kid did what he should, had to do. It’s called war, and being a reporter who has seen war, you should know that. Look that camera crew had three things that could have happened in that room. One, the Marines come in and give aid to the wounded man, which happens all the time, whether you and your buddies want to believe that or not, that is the norm. Two the wounded guy gets a Marine or two to come closer and then blows himself and the Marines up, or shoots the Marines as they shoot him. Or three, in what we all have seen, what that young Marine did, upon seeing movement he fired into the enemy, stopping possible harm to himself and his friends. If number one happens everybody just goes on their merry way, nothing of interest for the news crew to report. If number two happens then there is a real story of the death of young Americans trying to help a wounded man only to be killed in doing so. Of course you guys would slant that in a story about how our brave boys should have never been there in the first place and so therefore it is our government’s fault they were killed. Of course now that number three actually happened you boys in the press
will come after it like Abu Grabass and make all you can out of it.”

Reporter: “Wait a minute, are you also saying that what happened at Abu Ghraib prison was justified?”

Marine: “Nope, what I am saying is that you guys took what a bunch of goof-offs wrongfully did in a prison and made it into your own little version of the Iraq War My Lai. But again that is something you do not want to get into with me about. What you press bastards are about to do to this Marine is the only crime that has or will be committed in this incident. With that said, I think it is time you shoved off.”

Reporter: “Uh, well, very well……SIR, thank you for your time.”

Marine: “Is that right. Let me add one more thing, I don’t know if you are going to use our little conversation here or not, but I’ll tell you this, if you do it better be verbatim. Because if I get up tomorrow morning and read in your paper some distorted story of Veteran war crimes coming out of this interview, I will not go whining to the press saying I was misquoted, I won’t blame it on your editors for trying to spice it up, what I will do is come looking for you.”

Reporter: Moving towards the door, “Is that right.”

In the next edition of the local newspaper the front page carried this teaser for a story on Page 3, “American Veteran Admits Killing Wounded As Policy.”

Two days latter the headline read: “Reporter Hospitalized After Attacking Veteran”

If Gunny Jack couldn’t make the other guy throw the first punch, he at least knew who to have around for witnesses.


Semper Fi.

[LewWaters]

Please include url's for articles written elsewhere when posting them, thanks.

For this one, one place I did find it is;

http://passtheammo.com/
Scroll down the page and you should find it about halfway down.
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Clark County Conservative