Marine Investigated for Killing Wounded Iraqi

[HoppysMag]

War IS politics.

too much political correctness in war now adays

the enenemy only the enemy till they are killed, then they are innocent civilians in the wrong place and the world cries

[Konigballer]

Hey Hoppy, did'nt Pope Urban II try ban the crossbow from use against christians during the middle ages?

I dont know what weapon Germany tried to ban durring WW1, since they came up with most of the inovations in weaponry 'cept the tank. I know THEY were banned from developement and production of many weapons after the end of the war, wich didnt really last that long......

[PyRo]

I think they wanted to ban a certain type of knife, maybie somthing to do with aircraft?
The U.S. and I don't know what other countries were big on trying to get chemical weapons banned but never succeded I think they still used them during the secont world war. Japan was definatly big on banning PT boats those things rocked

[HoppysMag]

Hey Hoppy, did'nt Pope Urban II try ban the crossbow from use against christians during the middle ages?

I dont know what weapon Germany tried to ban durring WW1, since they came up with most of the inovations in weaponry 'cept the tank. I know THEY were banned from developement and production of many weapons after the end of the war, wich didnt really last that long......

yup the pope banned the crossbow

and the germans wanted the shotgun banned and threatened no mercy to any soldier captured carrying a shot gun or shotgun ammo.

[Konigballer]

oh yeah, I forgot about them griping about the pump shotgun our boys carried for trench work. And yet the krauts had no problem giving their guys Bergman submachine guns for the same purpose near the end of the war. Hypocritical huns!!

[taylor492]

having just watched the unedited version(thanks hoppysmag)of the tape i have to say its very hard to tell what is going on. You can just barely make out a body on the floor. And i think there would be no way to tell from the video if the man was a threat to anyone in the room. Now what you dont hear is that later on in the video the cameraman walks over towards another man laying on the floor covered with a blanket. This man was no less than about 8 feet from the man the soldier shot. Now my question is this. Why would that marine shoot a man laying on the floor who didnt seem to be moving yet leave the other alone. They clearly saw him. Im not fluent in arabic or whatever language they speak so i dont know what the other man said to the marines. I think the marine in question saw an amount of risk in the one and not in the other and that is why he shot him.

I truly hope nothing serious happens to this marine.

[PyRo]

yup the pope banned the crossbow

and the germans wanted the shotgun banned and threatened no mercy to any soldier captured carrying a shot gun or shotgun ammo.

What was their problem with the shotgun? They're going to die getting shot with a rifle too just not as quickly.

[HoppysMag]

What was their problem with the shotgun? They're going to die getting shot with a rifle too just not as quickly.

they claimed it was cruel and inhumane because alot of times people didnt die right away. this is coming from the people who invented mustard gas, that makes you caugh and puke untill your throat blisters closed and your lungs blister and bleed. sounds quick and painless huh?

[Thordic]

Weren't triangular bayonets banned after WW1?

[rkjunior303]

Weren't triangular bayonets banned after WW1?

something like that. i can see how that is cruel -- basically you bleed out from a wound that doesn't close. God forbid, though, you go to war and actually KILL one of your enemies these days.

[aaron_mag]

That poor bastard is going to get sacrificed by the politicians (the marine). It is a shame too.

I don't think having the imbedded reporters is a good thing. They have no business being there. And, as everyone already mentioned, bad things happen in war. That is just the way it is. Mistakes happen too and they are costly (lives are lost). But again...that is war.

But we shouldn't be surprised that insurgents use tactics like those described above. They are outgunned. We would do some of the same things if we were outgunned (not those horrendous beheadings I hope). But I would definetly booby trap stuff and play cat and mouse if I couldn't win a straight up fight. You try to win by any means possible.

That being said ('you try to win by any means possible') you can't expect one side to fight by one set of rules and the other to fight by another. We learn that our troops engage in psychological warfare/torture to try and get insurgents to reveal hiding spots and then we are surprised and outraged? How else do you get them to talk? Did we think this was going to be waving flags and aircraft flying in tight formation overhead? It was and is going to be hell. The worst sides of mankind showing up (and our troops seeing things that no human beings want to witness). Which is WHY we should have THOUGHT it through clearly before we got into this stupid thing. Which is WHY we should have relied on what OUR OWN intelligence community was telling us (that there were no weapons of mass destruction). But we're in it now....

[PyRo]

they claimed it was cruel and inhumane because alot of times people didnt die right away. this is coming from the people who invented mustard gas, that makes you caugh and puke untill your throat blisters closed and your lungs blister and bleed. sounds quick and painless huh?

I always thought shotguns were desierable for treanch clearing because they killed someone much faster than a rifle so they didn't have a chance to shoot you while they were dieing. Unless they were using the spread to cover large areas the I could see it not killing right away.
You walk up to someone and shoot them in the chest with a rifle or a pistol and they will probably have a few seconts if not more until they die, you walk up to someone and shoot them in the chest with buckshot they're not getting back up.

[PyRo]

We learn that our troops engage in psychological warfare/torture to try and get insurgents to reveal hiding spots and then we are surprised and outraged? How else do you get them to talk?

Yup, we're sure tortureing them back making them stand for an hour! Yelling at them! Even having dogs around them, the horror. Now when Sadam wanted someone to talk they would kill their family, beat them, and do all kinds of things. We sure are the bad guys here.
They want us out so they kidnap people and cut of their heads accomplishing not much more than getting people more pissed off at them.

[HoppysMag]

I always thought shotguns were desierable for treanch clearing because they killed someone much faster than a rifle so they didn't have a chance to shoot you while they were dieing. Unless they were using the spread to cover large areas the I could see it not killing right away.
You walk up to someone and shoot them in the chest with a rifle or a pistol and they will probably have a few seconts if not more until they die, you walk up to someone and shoot them in the chest with buckshot they're not getting back up.

well the shotguns ideal in trenches because it sprays and covers an area and is the true point and click interface not much aim needed. but each pellet does less damage over distance, and you get hit with less pellets as the pattern of shot opens up. so ya, at 10 or 30 yards. the enemys dead before they hit the ground, but at larger distances you will die slower. ( keep in mind when most people are shot, its not always like a movie when they pull the one last gasp of breath then say some clever line and shoot back. most will go into shock or shock paralysis)

not to mention that you are reaction shooting in this situation so most shots arnt clean kills.

the shotgun was ideal for our troops to quickly point, shoot and disable the enemy. but not good for the germans on the other end.

[SlartyBartFast]

When being judged for your actions, you will be judged against the gold standard.

NOT in comparison with your enemy or those who were worse.

If you're a religious type, that would mean your not pious because you only broke one commandment but someone else broke two. Or, in both terms of commandments and non-religious types, adultery is adultery regardless of how many times you do it.

Or did your Mother accept the lame "I did it because everyone else was doing it" excuse?

Is your wife/girlfriend dumb enough to accept the excuse "I only slept with one other woman, it's not like I slept with hordes of women"?

Saying the others do worse means that you get judged as the lesser of two evils. On the scale of good or evil, that leaves you firmly on the side of evil.