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only in america is there backlash against the video guy
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
who caught the soldier shooting the man on camera, they dont question the soldier
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They did question the soldier.
And it's not 'only in America'. Whistleblowers are universally unpopular.
its what the army gets for having journlists with them, its the reality of war, cant just show the good points
sites ran this through the marine corps before he broadcast it and the chain of command said they fully supported his decision.
he's still with the marines in iraq, i believe.
tell you what, in my opinion, anyone trashing sites needs to stfu...
anyone remember eddie adams?
what kind of acts of heroism have you read about?? or heard about...
what kind of acts of heroism are being praised in here??
yeah... after reading uncle joe's post... with the article that the camera guy wrote... i understand why he did it.. but i have yet to read or hear about something wonderful a soldier did...
of course the media is only going to cover the worse bad things that happen during war...
i admit you gotta search sometimes unless you watch nothing but fox news, but even nbc and cnn have run positive stories about our "good works" in afghanistan and iraq. and the printed media is FULL of hometown stories of bravery and sacrifice.
i'm talking stateside, not here.
plus, look at sites' website. he's pretty damn fond of his marines...
but that's the thing...
i have yet to read anything...
my brother is in the air force and has been to kuwait, saudi arabia, iraq, iran, and israel
and MANY of my good friends are in the army/air force some of which are still in iraq, and who are in kuwait, some who've already come back from iraq..
and my boyfriend is at westpoint... and it's his last year...
so i have a feeling he's gonna be over there soon...
and it's ridiculous that the media is so concentrated on the worst side of war!
you just gotta look.
Marine sacrifices his life for others in grenade blast
By Gordon Trowbridge
The Army Times
FALLUJAH, Iraq — Sgt. Rafael Peralta built a reputation as a man who always put his Marines' interests ahead of his own.
He showed that again, when he made the ultimate sacrifice of his life Tuesday, by shielding his fellow Marines from a grenade blast.
"It's stuff you hear about in boot camp, about World War II and Tarawa Marines who won the Medal of Honor," said Lance Cpl. Rob Rogers, 22, of Tallahassee, Fla., one of Peralta's platoon mates in 1st Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment.
Peralta, 25, as platoon scout, wasn't even assigned to the assault team that entered the insurgent safe house in northern Fallujah, Marines said. Despite an assignment that would have allowed him to avoid such dangerous duty, he regularly asked squad leaders if he could join their assault teams, they said.
One of the first Marines to enter the house, Peralta was wounded in the face by rifle fire from a room near the entry door, said Lance Cpl. Adam Morrison, 20, of Tacoma, who was in the house when Peralta was first wounded.
Moments later, an insurgent rolled a fragmentation grenade into the area where a wounded Peralta and the other Marines were seeking cover.
As Morrison and another Marine scrambled to escape the blast, pounding against a locked door, Peralta grabbed the grenade and cradled it into his body, Morrison said. While one Marine was badly wounded by shrapnel from the blast, the Marines said they believe more lives would have been lost if not for Peralta's selfless act.
"He saved half my fire team," said Cpl. Brannon Dyer, 27, of Blairsville, Ga.
The Marines said such a sacrifice would be perfectly in character for Peralta, a Mexico native who lived in San Diego and gained U.S. citizenship after joining the Marines.
"He'd stand up for his Marines to an insane point," Rogers said.
Rogers and others remembered Peralta as a squared-away Marine, so meticulous about uniform standards that he sent his camouflage uniform to be pressed while training in Kuwait before entering Iraq.
But mostly they remembered acts of selflessness: offering career advice, giving a buddy a ride home from the bar, teaching salsa dance steps in the barracks.
While Alpha Company was still gathering information, and a formal finding on Peralta's death is likely months away, not a single Marine in Alpha Company doubted the account of Peralta's act of sacrifice.
"I believe it," said Alpha's commander, Capt. Lee Johnson. "He was that kind of Marine."
Marines and Iraqi soldiers provide aid to remaining Fallujah residents
Submitted by: 31st MEU
Story Identification #: 2004112213745
Story by Sgt. Clinton Firstbrook
FALLUJAH, Iraq (Nov. 20, 2004) -- While the sound of gun fire and explosions still emanate from the city of Fallujah, standing in the Muhajareen mosque courtyard city residents line up to receive bottled water and humanitarian assistance rations from Marines and Iraqi soldiers.
Because not all of the city’s residents were able to leave, the Marine Corps and Iraqi Army set up an aid station to distribute boxes of food and water for those who stayed behind.
“We’ve had around 40 people come to our aid; some who’ve been without food and water for a few days,” said Iraqi Army Sgt. Maj. Sead Baker. “All of them have said how thankful they are for what we’re doing.”
At 8 a.m. each morning, Iraqi soldiers play a message over the mosque’s loudspeakers to let Fallujahian residents know if they are out or running low on supplies they have a place to turn to.
“I feel good about what I’m doing because it’s helping people stay alive,” said Iraqi Army Staff Sgt. Razak Shingab. “I’ve handed out around 300 meals.”
Before going into the city as part of Operation Al Fajr, I Marine Expeditionary Force intelligence assessments reported that some people did stay behind, but an exact number was unavailable.
“We didn’t think we’d see too many people show up, but now that the fighting has slowed to pockets of resistance, more are coming out of their houses,” said Bethpage, N.Y., native 32-year-old Capt. Tom Tennant, Charlie Company, 1st battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment’s company commander.
For some of the Fallujahian residents waiting in line, their choice for staying was due to monetary reasons.
“My family and I stayed in Fallujah because we were too poor to move out,” said Omar, a resident of Fallujah. “The food and water the Marines and Iraqi Army are giving to us are helping us survive.”
For others, it was a question of security.
“I sent my family away from the city for their safety, but I stayed behind to protect my house from thieves,” said Mohammed, a resident of Fallujah. “I feel safe when I see the American and Iraqi forces. This aid station is a very good thing.”
All services involved believe that this aid station will show how they want to turn Iraq into a productive nation where the people have a say in their government.
“Our mission is to destroy the insurgents so the people may retake their city,” said Tennant. “We’re going to do as much as we can to help them.”
check this site for daily stories on iraq from a marine perspective. i'm sure all the other branches have their sites as well.
this is another good link that has civilian newspaper stories:
http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/moreOIFHeadlines
right now, naturally, most are of fallujah...
Frankly though, the media have repeatedly painted either a totally sanitised image of the war, pandered unquestioningly to every "expert" and "official" paraded by the Bush administration to offer the latest spin and justifications for their patent illegalities and war crimes, fabricated the odd "hero" or "heroic scene" (let us recall the toppling of Saddam's statue and the farce created around Jessica Lynch), or repeatedly shown beheading videos without any effort to investigate who the actual captors might be (far easier to call hooded unindentified men, Iraqi insurgents even after the Berg video was proven a fake).
All in all the media, if anything, have avoided any real investigative journalism since Bush first took office and you can bet it's thanks to the threat from Rove against any who might dare scrutinise the charade this admin has consistently sold the public as a cover for its wanton disregard for the rule of law.
If you are going to post such as this? Be aware: you shortly will be on the receiving end of "love letters" (of the type they address to me) from Clandestine, Aladdin, and their sycophants.
However... send a SEMPER FI to your boyfriend, from this old Marine.
My sincere respects...
they can send me any love letter they want...
i'm proud of him.. for even getting into west point..
just like i'm proud of my brother.. and all of my friends who have been over in the middle east...
ETA::: by the way.. you're little mailbox thingy is full!
As for Thanny's warning, he may be oblivious to the differences between his posting style and yours. He seems oblivious of a lot of things. I wouldn't send him a PM because there's nothing I'd want to say to him in private that I can't say publicly, and I don't think he's got anything to confide that we haven't already seen (perhaps he writes haikus..?).
Say, if you're unfortunate enough to have been on Mil.com, try the Trackpads P/CP. It's not such a squawking shop, and the guy who runs Trackpads (while currently serving in Afghanistan) is a Bush supporter, so it's not the libfest some would claim
Did anyone see the air craft film they showed on Channel 4 news, basically it shows the air craft shooting on a big crowd of people running down the street. Insurgants dont run in groups of 30 or more.
We learned in school that during the Revolutionary War in America it was believed by European nations that there was a proper way to conduct a war as a gentleman. So the British troops when fighting the Colonists of America had bright red uniforms and would march in lines towards he enemy. The Colonists were farmers etc. and hid behind trees/rocks/buildings like snipers and hit the troops...like "terrorists". This is my first war. I don't remember any other. My conclusions: if I ever saw a movie depicting it as "glorious"...I think I'd burst out laughing. It's a brutual way for both sides to protect itself...and anything goes. Even if there are elections in Iraq on Jan. 30th and I do believe democracies offer the best opportunities for people to live humane lives and follow there dreams...I still will question this war. So many lives lost on both sides. I would have preferred the US sent some kind of special ops group in and murdered Saddam and his Sons and let the Iraqis take their future into their own hands....if he was a threat to us or if morally the West felt Saddam was like a Hitler in the numbers of people he was killing and torturing.
It would have split down the middle into civil war.
Playing Devil's advocate here, on this basis can we condemn troops for also breaking the rules IF it is proven that this was necessary to save their own lives?
Then too, I keep hearing about how these split second decisions are what keeps soldiers alive. Something from Deborah Orr, in the Independent last week: 'Since the first Gulf War, 107 ex-combatents have committed suicide (just 24 died in actual combat).'
I'm not saying every one of these 107 were driven to kill themselves because of their experiences in combat, but even a nagging doubt about whether a kill was justified must weigh heavily on a man's mind. The people who go out of their way to defend this Marine are going to have to consider that he himself may be overwhelmed with guilt, without any help from 'knee-jerk lefties'. The kind of combat that leads to such mental trauma is what Bush and his cronies have committed their armed forces to. They're not welcome in Iraq and they're suffering for it.
and the journalist was quite balanced if you saw his entire video, he was talking aobut how sometimes they conceal weapons etc, and how the guy who shot the guy who was faking it, got shot the other day by someone doing that....
even if the soldier isnt held to account criminally, it should be made clear he done this still, as im sure he has some guilt
Let's say a terrorist has hidden a bomb which is a danger to your troops and the civilian population. The terrorist is from an organisation which you know does not play by the rules.
You capture the terrorist and need to find and disable the bomb or evacuate the area around it to avoid loss of life.
You need information, he has it. Its YOUR decision.
What do you do?
(In a similair situation I can recall a British soldier beat the guy up until he gave the information and lives were saved. But the rules concerning treatment of POW's were broken)
erm i wouldnt stoop to their level firstly, and id do anything in my power to get it out of them, but like most people into it, they wont give up information unless they think theyre win, like all film bad guys
Then its more than likely from your decision that the terrorist will win and the troops/civilians will die.
Point two is that we know enough about the mosque incident to ask some searching questions...
'In the aftermath, the first question that came to mind was why had these wounded men been left in the mosque?
It was answered by staff judge advocate Lieutenant Colonel Bob Miller -- who interviewed the Marines involved following the incident. After being treated for their wounds on Friday by Navy Corpsman (I personally saw their bandages) the insurgents were going to be transported to the rear when time and circumstances allowed.' - Kevin Sites' Blog
Question: who screwed up and allowed wounded men who had already been captured to be subsequently slaughtered?
This is the kind of thing that will make all the sacrifices by western troops pointless, because the conflict will continue to claim lives. Where's the new John Kerry, negotiating for the handover of power to the mullahs? Because that's how this will end, even though it's precisely what Bush and co were trying to avoid by invading.
I was trying to avoid getting into a 'was he right or wrong' discussion but was interested in opinions anyway, hence the Devils Advocate approach about an imaginary situation.