Blue Star Chronicles

What do we want from our Marines? Do we want them protecting us or do we want them hesitant to pull a trigger for fear a United States Congressman will accuse them of ‘cold blooded murder’?

It’s a pretty dangerous world out there and it makes me incredibly sad that our Marines are having morale problems because a United States Congressman had to use them to further his own political career.

From the Washington Post

Haditha Prompts Reflection Among Marines

By ANTONIO CASTANEDA
The Associated Press
Monday, August 14, 2006; 1:29 PM

HADITHA, Iraq — A young Marine wonders if his superiors will support him if he shoots at perceived threats. An officer worries that civilians look at his Marines with more suspicion. The proud colonel acknowledges that his Corps has lost stature in the public’s eyes.

Allegations that Marines deliberately killed 24 civilians _ including women and children _ last November in this rebellious city have prompted reactions ranging from shame and anger to disbelief within the Marine Corps.

In this intensely proud service, some say they’re being prematurely judged. Others grasp for plausible explanations behind the alleged slaughter.

Please note: ‘rebellious city’. Take a look at the Party the Marines Spoiled. This wasn’t Mayberry USA the Marines were going into over there, yanno.

Our Marines have lost some stature in the public’s eye? That does NOT bode well for our troops OR for the United States. A weakened military puts us in a very vulnerable position in a world in which there are many that want to see us dead.

~snip~
Marines don’t see themselves as common grunts. Most Marines join their service knowing that America heavily relies on them in ground wars. To some, they are the modern day version of Roman legionnaires, reflected in a famous saying that claims Marines “guard heaven’s gates.”

If the Haditha allegations are true, it would call into question what Marines consider their strengths: Discipline in the ranks and holding the high moral ground in wartime.

Marines are alleged to have covered up the Haditha killings for weeks. Moreover, the nature of the incident was not discovered internally: The investigation was launched only after Time magazine questioned U.S. commanders about the civilian deaths.

Time magazine reporters spent weeks with insurgents to get dirt on our Marines. The media is culpable in the degredation of our military and thereby the sad decline of our strength as a nation.

Senior Marine commanders insist the investigation will not damage the Corps irrevocably.

They shouldn’t have been damaged AT ALL. The Traitor John Murtha should have KEPT HIS SENILE MOUTH SHUT instead of playing his partisan games for the media at the expense of our troops and the integrity of the safety of our nation.

~snip~
But on the front lines of the war, grunts and field commanders say the allegations have further complicated a difficult task. About 20,000 Marines are thinly spread out over violent Anbar province, a North Carolina-size area with over a million Sunni Arabs at the forefront of the insurgency.

Cpl. Luis Perez, 22, of Lusby, Md., who is stationed in Ramadi, said the case “kind of makes you want someone higher up to be there to make sure you’re completely in the right” when instinct says to fire.

Perez said insurgents in Ramadi had been increasingly firing from mosques to try to “lure us into doing something that we don’t want to do.”

The morale of the Marines has been damaged and the jihadists have been emboldened. The damage is done!

Commanders in the field have echoed an array of challenges stemming from the Haditha case. Arab television networks have regularly covered the investigation’s progress.

Note that Arab television is playing coverage of this alledged incident. I just bet they are calling it ALLEDGED. That’s great propaganda material for the jihadists!

“The Iraqi people are going to perceive that everybody does business this way, and that’s not the case,” said Capt. Andrew Del Gaudio, 30, a New Yorker who leads a company of Marines in Ramadi. “We inherently have a responsibility to apply our craft with humanity … and to apply a proportionate amount of force to a threat.”

Since when did Marines have to be so touchy-feely for crying out loud. They are MARINES! They aren’t nursery school workers.

Many grunts in the field privately complain that outsiders unfamiliar with the pressures of a counterinsurgency war unfairly condemn the accused men. Some expressed anger at what they considered political attacks directed at the Marines _ instead of against policy-makers in Washington.

Yeah, you have been politicized and someone needs to pay for besides Soldiers and Marines.

“Institutionally, it’s sad because we’ve been prejudged by many. Many who have qualms against the (Bush) administration use this,” said Col. Juan Ayala, a 26-year veteran of the Marine Corps who now trains the Iraqi army. “You see an institution that you really love taking slaps … but if guys are guilty of disobeying the law of armed conflict, they should face justice.”

Other changes have been implemented as a result of the investigation. After a Marine spokesman repeatedly defended the accused Marines _ reportedly going as far as to accuse a Time magazine reporter of believing al-Qaida propaganda _ official statements now undergo greater scrutiny before they are released.

WHAT????? The Times reporters spent about 10 weeks with the jihadists and kept at it till they could get something on the Marines. Not to mention, how truthful have YOU found the jihadists to be.

This kind of repremand makes us appear WEAK to the enemy. They are laughing at us and how easily they can send these Pentagon officials into a tail spin to give ’sensitivity training’ to Marines.

This is just maddening. We need Vietnam Vets training and planning this war. Not a bunch of Clinton- era- make-sure-you-don’t-hurt-anybody’s-feelings generals.

Some Marines privately speculated that the troops under investigation probably unleashed their anger on civilians who likely knew who planted the bomb that killed a young lance corporal, triggering the bloodletting. In most parts of Iraq, civilians stay silent after insurgent attacks, either out of fear or sympathy for militants.

Of course they knew who planted the bombs. AND they are going to side with who appears the strongest. They aren’t stupid. They are hedging their bets and right now the American forces appear to be pretty DADGUME WEAK! And with Senators and Congressmen contantly calling for the troops to leave, they would be putting their lives on the line to give info to the Americans.

“We are not tasked with doing something simple,” said Del Gaudio _ just as a suicide car bomb exploded down the street from his base, shattering windows and wounding four soldiers. A few minutes later Del Gaudio continued.

“I’ve told my Marine since Day One: I will always stand beside any decision they make. … Anytime they shoot someone I want them to have a clear conscience,” he said. “It is too dangerous to foster that type of (second-guessing) environment. It’s inherently a relationship of trust with me and my Marines. I trust that we have trained them the right way.”

Yes, that kind of second-guessing environment is destructive in the civilian work place. I can’t even imagine how dangerous that is in a combat environment.

Since the accused battalion in Haditha was on its third tour in Iraq in three years, some have blamed repeated deployments for sparking the killings. Seven Marines and a sailor from another battalion also on its third Iraq tour are accused of unjustifiably killing a man in the western town of Hamdania. Both battalions took part in the storming of Fallujah in Nov. 2004.

But some have pointed out that the senior officer accused of overseeing the alleged killings in Haditha was only in the third month of his first tour in Iraq. Some commanders contend that multiple deployments were likely not a factor in such incidents.

“These guys enlisted after 9/11. And to a man I’d say they wanted to go to war,” said Lt. Col. Patrick Looney, who commanded Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment charged in the Hamdania killing. “They knew they were going to war.”

If The Traitor John Murtha had ever spent any real time in combat he’d have a little bit of an understanding of what these Marines are dealing with and how destructive his actions have been to them and to the country.

Murtha will not release his military records ….

Time for Murtha to get out of Washington. He’s done enough damage. Get him out of Washington so hopefully, he can’t do any more harm to our Marines and to the Nation.

Leo at Murtha Must Go says that For Our Mission in Iraq, Trust is Key.
Veterans for Irey
Boot Murtha

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