Tape showing US soldiers killing an unarmed and wounded Iraqi

[Dinner]

BTW St. Marcus the tap shows a Marine not a soldier. If you're going to type hysterics then please at least get the terms straight. As a soldier I want people to know little facts like that.

[Gangerolf]

Originally posted by axi
From what I heard in the tape, the soldier, scared, shouts that "he's faking he's dead" and empties a whole clip on the man. He definitely lost his nerve.

That's not what I saw on CNN. The marines were calm and talking in low voices. And there was only one shot.

[Traianvs]

Isn't a marine a soldier then. Their goal is to kill.. what's the difference

[DanS]

Apparently, the marine had been shot the day before, was patched up, and sent back into the battle. He might have flipped. It's a shame that this stuff happens in battle, and he'll probably be charged with murder.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Trajanus
Isn't a marine a soldier then. Their goal is to kill.. what's the difference

Marines work for the Marine Corp who are a Department of the Navy organization. The Marines' traditional job was to ride around on ships and to act as a quick reaction force which could be completely self contained for a month or two but not longer. The Army is the main land warfare arm and it is owned by the Department of the Army. The Army is designed to fight full on wars (like WW1 & 2, Korea, the Civil War etc...) for years on end. The Army is much, much, much larger then the Marine Corp, has far more armored vehicles, uses different uniforms.

Essentially you have asked "Isn't a soldier a sailor" and the anwser is no. They do fundimentally different jobs.

[Tingkai]

I saw the video. The marine patrol calmly enters a building where there are several wounded Iraqis lying motionless by the wall. (They were wounded during an earlier firefight, treated by US forces and left there).

One of the marine walks up to a wounded guy and just shoots him dead.

If he's an ordinary grunt, he might be charged and jailed.

If he's an officer, five will get you ten that he'll just get a discharge from the marines.

[Dinner]

He'll get charged and he was a grunt.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Marines work for the Marine Corp who are a Department of the Navy organization. The Marines' traditional job was to ride around on ships and to act as a quick reaction force which could be completely self contained for a month or two but not longer. The Army is the main land warfare arm and it is owned by the Department of the Army. The Army is designed to fight full on wars (like WW1 & 2, Korea, the Civil War etc...) for years on end. The Army is much, much, much larger then the Marine Corp, has far more armored vehicles, uses different uniforms.

Essentially you have asked "Isn't a soldier a sailor" and the anwser is no. They do fundimentally different jobs.

Actually, in the real world, "soldier" just means someone who is a member of the military...

1. One who serves in an army.
2. An enlisted person or a noncommissioned officer.
3. An active, loyal, or militant follower of an organization.
4.
1. A sexually undeveloped form of certain ants and termites, having large heads and powerful jaws.
2. One of a group of honeybees that swarm in defense of a hive.

In the military it's no doubt more specific, but to anyone else, a military man on the ground in enemy territory is a "soldier".

[Whoha]

The video thanks to free republic:

http://www.asjewelers.com/FRstuff/9a/Capped.wmv

This is O'reily at the start, it cuts in at the end of the first "HES FAKING HES ****ING DEAD", says it again, the screen goes to black, and I hear what sounds like a burst of fire. The tape is fairly poor quality, anyone have a better one(perhaps the one Tingkai watched since they apparently didn't black out the picture for him).

[Tingkai]

The video I saw was on CNN. It starts when the patrol is walking up to the building.

CNN blacked out the actual shooting, but the talking heads said the guy shoots him. I couldn't hear what the guy says. Only one shot heard.

[Dinner]

Yeah, MSNBC is reporting the Iraqi was an insurgent but he had been wounded by a different group of Marines who had patched the insurgent up and left the insurgents to be picked up by a later patrol. The second patrol arrived but had not been informed about the wounded insugents that had been placed in the building.

Earlier that day another Marine was killed by a booby trap set off by a dying Iraqi insurgent who was saying he wanted to surrender and recieve medical care. Also the Marine who shot the wounded insurgent had himself been wounded the day before but had been returned to duty; it seems he was likely suffering from combat stress or at least wounded combat personel who are returned to the lines often suffer from combat stress.

It seems the wounded Iraqi began moving when the soldiers entered and the Marine shouted about the insurgent faking he was dead and then fired a single shot from either an M-4 or a combat shotgun. It sucks, it was a bad situation, and that guy will probably go to jail.

[Berzerker]

At the end of the day that's what makes us better then Saddam; if one of our guys breaks the law he goes to jail while Saddam gave them a medal.

Saddam gave medals to soldiers who violated his laws?

[Berzerker]

It's like a drunk driving fatality but "we" - the government - got him drunk and put him behind the wheel and told him to drive... I have a problem jailing the guy given the circumstances. I mean, if we jail him we should jail Bush for invading Iraq on the same premise - a perceived immediate threat.

[MrFun]

Originally posted by Oerdin


The major problem in my experience is determining who is unarmed and who is just pretending to be unarmed. The "double tapping" law which covers when you can shot a combatant and when you must care for him has a refrence which might be of help. If your line of advance has not reached the enemies position and if the enemy has not made absolutely clear that he wants to surrender then he is a legal target. Once your line of advance has passed him then it is assumed he is wounded or wants to surrender unless he behaives in a combant style.

So lying crumpled against the wall half unconscious is combat-style behavior?

[Shi Huangdi]

The military is a large organization, and the US Can't guarantee the behavior of every soldier.

As this happened within the US ranks, the person who did such a deed will be punished and seriously.

Had a member of the insurgency did such a thing to a US soldier, he would be a hero for killing an American. If they did get mad at him, it'd be for not capturing him so they could behead him later.