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Submit or Die: The Conquest of Falluja

Thread ID: 15647 | Posts: 15 | Started: 2004-11-13

Faust [OP]

2004-11-13 21:21 | User Profile

by Jacob G. Hornberger

Victory! The unelected dictatorial Iraqi regime of CIA-designee Iyad Allawi, with the assistance of the most powerful police force in the world, has killed 600 Ã¢â¬ÅinsurgentsÃ¢â¬Â in Falluja, flattened and Ã¢â¬ÅpacifiedÃ¢â¬Â the city, and driven hundreds of thousands of people from their homes.

Question 1: Does the conquest of Falluja mean that that the U.S. occupation of Iraq is now over? Apparently not, because it seems that as U.S. officials were slowly preparing to flatten and Ã¢â¬ÅpacifyÃ¢â¬Â the city, most of the thousands of insurgents in Falluja hightailed it out of there in order to continue their guerrilla attacks elsewhere, much to the chagrin of U.S. military officials, who had hoped to finally kill, once and for all, all the Ã¢â¬Åbad guysÃ¢â¬Â in Iraq.

Question 2: Will the ranks of the insurgents now be reduced by 600, the number of Ã¢â¬ÅinsurgentsÃ¢â¬Â killed in Falluja? Not necessarily because each of those 600 dead people probably had brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, parents, nephews, and nieces, all of whom now have reason to join the insurgency to avenge the death of their friend or loved one, to oust an illegal invader and occupier from their country, and to overthrow its unelected dictatorial puppet regime.

Question 3: IsnÃ¢â¬â¢t AllawiÃ¢â¬â¢s attack on Falluja somewhat similar to what the Allawi regime is accusing Saddam Hussein of having done Ã¢â¬â killing his own people for resisting his regime? What will Allawi and U.S. officials say when Saddam says at his trial (assuming he lives long enough to be tried), Ã¢â¬ÅHey, wait a minute! How can you complain about my putting down a resistance when youÃ¢â¬â¢ve done and are doing the same thing I did? WhatÃ¢â¬â¢s wrong with killing, flattening, and Ã¢â¬ËpacifyingÃ¢â¬â¢ people who are opposing our respective dictatorial regimes?Ã¢â¬Â (Actually, Saddam would claim that his regime was more legitimate than that of Allawi, given that Allawi is an unelected stooge of a foreign power illegally occupying the country while Saddam was reelected in the 2002 Iraqi presidential election by supposedly receiving 100 percent of the 11,445,638 votes cast.)

Question 4: Why did U.S. forces obey AllawiÃ¢â¬â¢s orders to flatten and Ã¢â¬ÅpacifyÃ¢â¬Â Falluja? Well, certainly not to liberate the Fallujans from the clutches of Saddam Hussein because, remember, he was taken into custody long ago. And not because the Fallujans were threatening America with weapons of mass destruction because, remember, those were destroyed long ago. And not because the Fallujans had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks because they didnÃ¢â¬â¢t.

The crime for which the Fallujans were punished was their refusal to submit to the authority of an unelected CIA-designated dictator, Iyad Allawi, and to obey the orders of his all-powerful police force (the U.S. military), a police force that is significantly more powerful than the one that Saddam Hussein used to put down insurrections against his regime. The message sent to Iraqis at Falluja is very simple and, in fact, is no different in principle from the message sent to the Iraqi people from Abu Ghraib prison: Ã¢â¬ÅResist us or disobey us Ã¢â¬â or countenance those who do resist us or disobey us Ã¢â¬â and we will punish you.Ã¢â¬Â

Interestingly, it was the same type of message that U.S. officials, including those in the military, sent the American people when they flattened and Ã¢â¬ÅpacifiedÃ¢â¬Â the Branch Davidian compound at Waco several years ago.

November 13, 2004

Jacob Hornberger [send him mail] is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.

[url]http://www.lewrockwell.com/hornberger/hornberger10.html[/url]

Ponce

2004-11-13 22:05 | User Profile

I am with this guy all the way,,,,,,,,

Mentzer

2004-11-14 00:09 | User Profile

I think your Jacob is somewhat confused.

Understand the reality of Fallujah. A nest of criminals and murderers. The soldiers have found torture-houses and mutilated bodies.

You clearly are ignorant of those Arab people - you must educate yourself in their practice and belief.

Never forget what they are capable of in their herding packs. They would slaughter you with less regard than one of their goats.

But, of course, you would have no knowledge of their actions or culture.

And before you are further confused - I am not Jewish.

Mentzer

Petr

2004-11-14 01:02 | User Profile

[COLOR=Blue]"The soldiers have found torture-houses and mutilated bodies."[/COLOR]

Two words: "holocaust propaganda."

Petr

Exelsis_Deo

2004-11-14 02:47 | User Profile

I am tired of the insurgents. They are stopping free Iraqi elections. I know some of you reading this have a hard bone to lay down. But all the United States wants is elections in January. If you think it's just a puppet regime, then you will have the chance to vote against it. AMerica is there to let you have elections. Personally, I cannot stand our presece in Iraq/ if I were them, I would do anything I could to kill youu foreeign invaderr. Kill You. Kill You for killing my family. F()K you and F()k your EVIL New World Order. I will KILL AND SSHOOT every chance I havee

Ponce

2004-11-14 02:59 | User Profile

I was going to post earlier today but I was to angry to say anthing,,,,,,,my problem is that even if I have lived in the US for the past 52 years and served in the US Army for six years I still feel like a Cuban.

You can take Ponce out of Cuba but you can not take Cuba out of Ponce.

How do I feel that the Iraqis are feeling? simple, come to Cuba as a friend and will invite you to a drink, come with a rifle and I'll be ready for you.

Would I fight with Cuban against the US? would I fight with the US against Cuba?,,,,,,,, well, if Cuba invade the US I would fight against them and if the US were to invade Cuba I would fight against the US.

Well Ponce, if you like Cuba so much then why don't you go back there?,,,,, answer, I did try back in 66 and a message from Castro to my father was "Your son is to Americanise to live in Cuba again",,,,,,,he is wrong but I do admire him for thinking that way.

At least I feel that I am honest with you and with myself, but if you were to ask an American born Jew if he would fight against the Israelis if commanded by the president of the US his answer would be a big NO.

Jack Cassidy

2004-11-14 06:04 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Mentzer]I think your Jacob is somewhat confused.

Understand the reality of Fallujah. A nest of criminals and murderers. The soldiers have found torture-houses and mutilated bodies.

You clearly are ignorant of those Arab people - you must educate yourself in their practice and belief.

Never forget what they are capable of in their herding packs. They would slaughter you with less regard than one of their goats.

But, of course, you would have no knowledge of their actions or culture.

And before you are further confused - I am not Jewish.

Mentzer[/QUOTE] The pathetic thing is that the "terrorists" and trouble-makers are not the ones being annihilated in Fallujah. They, the real trouble-makers and terrorists (also known as "insurgents"), know that it is much better for them to lay IEDs and set-up surprise hit-and-runs. They know that to stay in Fallujah for a face-to-face fight with the US military is the only way the US military can win. It is stupid for any insurgent to essentially go along with this. So what you have in Fallujah are not the guys that are a threat to US forces around Iraq or carrying out major attacks around Iraq, but mostly just stupid or stubborn young guys thinking they are defending their home or their people or whatever. And when I see these young Marines having fun playing soldier and blowing apart this or that building in Fallujah, all I see is my tax money going to rebuild it all.

The news says this Fallujah operation is done. Does this mean Junior will doning a flight suit and landing on a carrier? Perhaps with the banner behind him reading, "Mission Accomplished: Part Deux".

Faust

2004-11-16 14:11 | User Profile

U.S. Military Probes Shooting of Iraqi in Falluja

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has begun an investigation into possible war crimes after a television pool report by NBC showed a Marine shooting dead a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a Falluja mosque, officials said on Monday.

[url]http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20041116/ts_nm/iraq_marine_shooting_dc[/url]

TexasAnarch

2004-11-16 19:58 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Mentzer]I think your Jacob is somewhat confused.

Understand the reality of Fallujah. A nest of criminals and murderers. The soldiers have found torture-houses and mutilated bodies.

You clearly are ignorant of those Arab people - you must educate yourself in their practice and belief.

Never forget what they are capable of in their herding packs. They would slaughter you with less regard than one of their goats.

But, of course, you would have no knowledge of their actions or culture.

And before you are further confused - I am not Jewish.

Mentzer[/QUOTE]

You don't get the point Metz. If you deserve to die, like those who call on Koresh and the defenders of freedom in Iraq who were told to submit or die -- knowing that submission IS death -- you will get killed. God might use a snake, a butcher knife, a Kalishnikov, an Arab freedom fighter, but its all the same. You are gone. Good riddance. No one who helped Bush get re-elected deserves to exist anyway, and never did. Too bad they weren't aborted.

xmetalhead

2004-11-16 21:38 | User Profile

[I]For people like Mentzer, please, put this in your pipe and smoke it.[/I]

[B][SIZE=4]800 Civilians Feared Dead in Fallujah[/SIZE][/B]

Dahr Jamail, Electronic Iraq, 16 November 2004 [IMG]http://electroniciraq.net/uploads/falloujah260.jpg[/IMG] [url]http://electroniciraq.net/news/1716.shtml[/url] BAGHDAD, Nov 16 (IPS) - At least 800 civilians have been killed during the U.S. military siege of Fallujah, a Red Cross official estimates.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of U.S. military reprisal, a high-ranking official with the Red Cross in Baghdad told IPS that "at least 800 civilians" have been killed in Fallujah so far.

His estimate is based on reports from Red Crescent aid workers stationed around the embattled city, from residents within the city and from refugees, he said.

"Several of our Red Cross workers have just returned from Fallujah since the Americans won't let them into the city," he said. "And they said the people they are tending to in the refugee camps set up in the desert outside the city are telling horrible stories of suffering and death inside Fallujah."

The official said that both Red Cross and Iraqi Red Crescent relief teams had asked the U.S. military in Fallujah to take in medical supplies to people trapped in the city, but their repeated requests had been turned down.

A convoy of relief supplies from both relief organisations continues to wait on the outskirts of the city for military permission to enter. They have appealed to the United Nations to intervene on their behalf.

"The Americans close their ears, and that is it," the Red Cross official said. "They won't even let us take supplies into Fallujah General Hospital."

The official estimated that at least 50,000 residents remain trapped within the city. They were too poor to leave, lacked friends or family outside the city and therefore had nowhere to go, or they simply had not had enough time to escape before the siege began, he said.

Aid workers in his organisation have reported that houses of civilians in Kharma, a small city near Fallujah, had been bombed by U.S. warplanes. In one instance a family of five was killed just two days ago, they reported.

"I don't know why the American leaders did not approach the Red Cross and ask us to deal with the families properly before the attacking began," said a Red Cross aid worker, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

"Suddenly they attacked and people were stuck with no help, no medicine, no food, no supplies," he said. "So those who could, ran for the desert while the rest were trapped in the city."

If the U.S. forces would call a temporary cease-fire "we could get our trucks in and get the civilians left in Fallujah who need medical care, we could get them out," he said.

Mosques have organised massive collections of food and relief supplies for Fallujah residents as they did last April when the city was under attack, but these supplies have not been allowed into the city either.

The Red Cross official said they had received several reports from refugees that the military had dropped cluster bombs in Fallujah, and used a phosphorous weapon that caused severe burns.

The U.S. military claims to have killed 1,200 "insurgents" in Fallujah. Abdel Khader Janabi, a resistance leader from the city has said that only about 100 among them were fighters.

"Both of them are lying," the Red Cross official said. "While they agree on the 1,200 number, they are both lying about the number of dead fighters." He added that "our estimate of 800 civilians is likely to be too low."

The situation within Fallujah is grim, he said. If help does not reach people soon, "the children who are trapped will most likely die."

He said the Ministry of Health in the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government had stopped supplying hospitals and clinics in Fallujah two months before the current siege.

"The hospitals do not even have aspirin," he said. "This shows, in my opinion, that they've had a plan to attack for a long time and were trying to weaken the people."

[I]Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist from Alaska who has spent over 5 months in occupied Iraq reporting on how the brutal, bloody, unlawful occupation has affected the Iraqi people. Contribute to Dahr's Efforts in Iraq: "Your valuable donations will be used solely for supporting my work in Iraq. Working there safely as an independent journalist is costly. Any contribution that you can make will allow me to continue to provide an alternative voice to the mainstream US media." You can visit his website at [url]www.dahrjamailiraq.com[/url]. [/I]

Faust

2004-11-16 22:43 | User Profile

xmetalhead,

I am sue they killed nearly as many resistance of Fallujah as they did "insurgents."

[QUOTE]** At least 800 civilians have been killed during the U.S. military siege of Fallujah, a Red Cross official estimates. ... "The Americans close their ears, and that is it," the Red Cross official said. "They won't even let us take supplies into Fallujah General Hospital."

He said the Ministry of Health in the U.S.-backed interim Iraqi government had stopped supplying hospitals and clinics in Fallujah two months before the current siege.** [/QUOTE]

**Related thread: :osama: :osama:

55 US Soldiers Killed This Week (Nov. 8-14)** [url]http://www.originaldissent.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15652[/url]

Faust

2004-11-17 14:37 | User Profile

Few Foreigners Among Insurgents

so much for the neo con propaganda of the iraqi resistance being "foreign fighters"

CAMP FALLOUJA, Iraq Ã¢â¬â The battle for the city of Fallouja is giving U.S. military commanders some insight into this country's insurgency, painting a portrait of a home-grown uprising dominated by Iraqis, not foreign fighters.

Of the more than 1,000 men between the ages of 15 and 55 who were captured in intense fighting in the center of the insurgency over the last week, just 15 are confirmed foreign fighters, Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. ground commander in Iraq, said Monday.

There was evidence that an organized force of foreign fighters was present. One dead guerrilla bore Syrian identification. A number of insurgents believed to be foreigners wore similar black "uniforms," each with black flak vests, webbed gear and weapons superior to those of their Iraqi allies.

But despite an intense focus on the network of Jordanian-born militant Abu Musab Zarqawi by U.S. and Iraqi officials, who have insisted that most Iraqis support the country's interim government, American commanders said their best estimates of the proportion of foreigners among their enemies is about 5%.

The overwhelming majority of insurgents, several senior commanders said, are drawn from the tens of thousands of former government employees whose sympathies lie with the toppled regime of Saddam Hussein, unemployed "criminals" who find work laying roadside bombs for about $500 each and Iraqi religious extremists.

"Over time, it's the former regime elements that are the threat," said Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who joined Casey for a visit to bases in Baghdad and outside Fallouja before meeting with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

Before the battle, U.S. officials frequently stressed the role of foreign fighters in Fallouja. Last week, as the battle got underway, Myers told reporters that the city was "a major safe haven for former regime elements and foreign fighters, in particular Zarqawi and his folks."

It was not clear how many foreign fighters might have slipped out of Fallouja before the U.S. military began its assault early last week and how many may still be fighting in the southern neighborhoods of the city, where clashes continue.

A loose coalition of foreign and domestic fighters has shown few signs of a centralized command, said senior American defense officials. The Iraqi government and the U.S. military telegraphed the Fallouja offensive with calls for civilians to leave the guerrilla stronghold. But despite those early warnings, the insurgents failed to cut off military supply routes and to reinforce isolated fighters, Myers said.

"There is not someone in charge," Casey said. "There's collaboration between the Islamic extremists, between the foreign fighters and between the former regime elements. And it's a marriage of convenience."

U.S. forces also have found large caches of arms in Fallouja containing a wide variety of weapons, including car bombs ready to be deployed, bomb factories and heavy weapons, scattered among houses, businesses and other buildings.

Commanders cautioned that identifying foreign militants is no exact science. Of the 3,000 fighters that some officials believe were holed up in the city at the dawn of the battle, by U.S. estimates at least 1,600 are dead. However, estimates of the death toll among insurgents have varied widely; many bodies remain hidden in rubble or have not yet been recovered in the streets.

Most of the insurgents "sanitized" themselves, officials said, removing identification and clues to their nationality.

"It's hard to tell," Casey said. American, Iraqi and British troops "are resorting to looking at the Korans in their back pocket and trying to figure out where it was published to try to get some sense of nationality."

Allawi acknowledged in an interview Monday that the insurgents were largely made up of his countrymen, but continued to assert that foreign fighters had often been responsible for suicide car bombings and other spectacular attacks that he said were designed to derail elections scheduled for January.

"We don't have exact numbers and exact figures, but always the foreign elements, terrorists, are used for something else" than the tasks chosen for Iraqi insurgents, Allawi said, citing car bombings in particular. "The terrorists are trying to hurt the multinational force and us, to disrupt the police, to disrupt the army, the national guard."

He called those assaults a national "campaign of intimidation."

Allawi has firsthand knowledge of that campaign. Three members of his family were recently kidnapped by insurgents. The two female relatives were released Sunday, Iraqi officials confirmed, but a male cousin remained in insurgent hands.

"The insurgents will kidnap family members, they will murder government officials. They will murder police. We have found that some of the most effective leaders in the national guard or the Iraqi police are murdered or assassinated," said Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commander of the 1st Marine Division. "I think we're seeing right now the last stand of the real hard-liners."

The insurgents' goal, added Casey, is to keep minority Sunni Muslims Ã¢â¬â many of whom sympathize with Saddam Hussein, their former Sunni president Ã¢â¬â from participating in the January election process, undermining its legitimacy.

"They've had to go to the intimidation to keep the Sunni from participating in the political process, because they were losing," Casey said.

U.S. and Iraqi strategists plan to respond by supplementing Iraqi police with Iraqi national guard or army troops, possibly supported by U.S. forces.

The foreign fighters that have joined the insurgency appear to have largely crossed through Syria, military officials said. A small number of Syrians have been captured, along with two Moroccans caught on the first night of the offensive last week. A campaign of intimidation has prompted Iraqi border guards to abandon their posts, U.S. defense officials said.

Iraqi government and American authorities alike blame the Syrian government.

"It's hard to believe Syria doesn't know it's going on," Myers said.

"Whether or not they're supporting it is another question. That said, you could say if Syria wanted to stop it they could stop it, or stop it partially."

At the urging of U.S. forces, the Iraqi government shut down the border crossing to Syria at the western Iraqi city of Qusaybah and allowed only commercial vehicles to pass at one Syrian crossing and one Jordanian site, Natonski said. Men of fighting age have not been allowed to cross, he added.

Most of the insurgents "sanitized" themselves, officials said, removing identification and clues to their nationality.

He called those assaults a national "campaign of intimidation."

"They've had to go to the intimidation to keep the Sunni from participating in the political process, because they were losing," Casey said.

U.S. and Iraqi strategists plan to respond by supplementing Iraqi police with Iraqi national guard or army troops, possibly supported by U.S. forces.

Iraqi government and American authorities alike blame the Syrian government.

"It's hard to believe Syria doesn't know it's going on," Myers said.

"Whether or not they're supporting it is another question. That said, you could say if Syria wanted to stop it they could stop it, or stop it partially."

[url]http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/la-fg-fighters16nov16%2c0%2c19927.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines[/url]

Happy Hacker

2004-11-17 17:17 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Exelsis_Deo]I am tired of the insurgents. They are stopping free Iraqi elections. I know some of you reading this have a hard bone to lay down. But all the United States wants is elections in January. If you think it's just a puppet regime, then you will have the chance to vote against it. AMerica is there to let you have elections. [/QUOTE]

The former Baath party members (other than the nominal members) are banned from running for office. As the Baath Party was the party, any Iraqi active in politics, even the moderates and reformers, are banned from office.

Do you have any doubt that Allawi, the current US-picked leader, would win an election? He'll win because the election is a sham.

Experienced local politicians are banned from running for the offices that elect the national president. There is no free press in Iraq, Allawi is daily presented as a hero of the people. The US-backed candidates will massively outspend their opponents in campaign spending. And, the US can use the Kurdish allies to stack the electorial college enough to assure that the US gets to pick the next president.

To prove an honest election, let Saddam run and ban Allawi.

Sertorius

2004-11-22 04:39 | User Profile

Dispatches from a life in conflict.

Dateline: Iraq Local Time: in Baghdad

Disclaimer: Kevin Sites is a freelance solo journalist currently on assignment for NBC News in Iraq, but this site is a personal website not affiliated with or funded by NBC News.

To Devil Dogs of the 3.1:

Since the shooting in the Mosque, I've been haunted that I have not been able to tell you directly what I saw or explain the process by which the world came to see it as well. As you know, I'm not some war zone tourist with a camera who doesn't understand that ugly things happen in combat. I've spent most of the last five years covering global conflict. But I have never in my career been a 'gotcha' reporter -- hoping for people to commit wrongdoings so I can catch them at it.

This week I've even been shocked to see myself painted as some kind of anti-war activist. Anyone who has seen my reporting on television or has read the dispatches on this website is fully aware of the lengths I've gone to play it straight down the middle -- not to become a tool of propaganda for the left or the right.

But I find myself a lightning rod for controversy in reporting what I saw occur in front of me, camera rolling.

It's time you to have the facts from me, in my own words, about what I saw -- without imposing on that Marine -- guilt or innocence or anything in between. I want you to read my account and make up your own minds about whether you think what I did was right or wrong. All the other armchair analysts don't mean a damn to me.

Here it goes.

It's Saturday morning and we're still at our strong point from the night before, a clearing between a set of buildings on the southern edge of the city. The advance has been swift, but pockets of resistance still exist. In fact, we're taking sniper fire from both the front and the rear.

Weapons Company uses its 81's (mortars) where they spot muzzle flashes. The tanks do some blasting of their own. By mid-morning, we're told we're moving north again. We'll be back clearing some of the area we passed yesterday. There are also reports that the mosque, where ten insurgents were killed and five wounded on Friday may have been re-occupied overnight.

I decide to leave you guys and pick up with one of the infantry squads as they move house-to-house back toward the mosque. (For their own privacy and protection I will not name or identify in any way, any of those I was traveling with during this incident.)

Many of the structures are empty of people -- but full of weapons. Outside one residence, a member of the squad lobs a frag grenade over the wall. Everyone piles in, including me.

While the Marines go into the house, I follow the flames caused by the grenade into the courtyard. When the smoke clears, I can see through my viewfinder that the fire is burning beside a large pile of anti-aircraft rounds.

I yell to the lieutenant that we need to move. Almost immediately after clearing out of the house, small explosions begin as the rounds cook off in the fire.

At that point, we hear the tanks firing their 240-machine guns into the mosque. There's radio chatter that insurgents inside could be shooting back. The tanks cease-fire and we file through a breach in the outer wall.

We hear gunshots from what seems to be coming from inside the mosque. A Marine from my squad yells, "Are there Marines in here?"

When we arrive at the front entrance, we see that another squad has already entered before us.

The lieutenant asks them, "Are there people inside?"

One of the Marines raises his hand signaling five.

"Did you shoot them," the lieutenant asks?

"Roger that, sir, " the same Marine responds.

"Were they armed?" The Marine just shrugs and we all move inside.

Immediately after going in, I see the same black plastic body bags spread around the mosque. The dead from the day before. But more surprising, I see the same five men that were wounded from Friday as well. It appears that one of them is now dead and three are bleeding to death from new gunshot wounds. The fifth is partially covered by a blanket and is in the same place and condition he was in on Friday, near a column. He has not been shot again. I look closely at both the dead and the wounded. There don't appear to be any weapons anywhere.

"These were the same wounded from yesterday," I say to the lieutenant. He takes a look around and goes outside the mosque with his radio operator to call in the situation to Battalion Forward HQ.

I see an old man in a red kaffiyeh lying against the back wall. Another is face down next to him, his hand on the old man's lap -- as if he were trying to take cover. I squat beside them, inches away and begin to videotape them. Then I notice that the blood coming from the old man's nose is bubbling. A sign he is still breathing. So is the man next to him.

While I continue to tape, a Marine walks up to the other two bodies about fifteen feet away, but also lying against the same back wall.

Then I hear him say this about one of the men:

"He's *ing faking he's dead -- he's faking he's *ing dead."

Through my viewfinder I can see him raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging.

However, the Marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he's going to cover him while another Marine searches for weapons.

Instead, he pulls the trigger. There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down.

"Well he's dead now," says another Marine in the background.

I am still rolling. I feel the deep pit of my stomach. The Marine then abruptly turns away and strides away, right past the fifth wounded insurgent lying next to a column. He is very much alive and peering from his blanket. He is moving, even trying to talk. But for some reason, it seems he did not pose the same apparent "danger" as the other man -- though he may have been more capable of hiding a weapon or explosive beneath his blanket.

But then two other marines in the room raise their weapons as the man tries to talk.

For a moment, I'm paralyzed still taping with the old man in the foreground. I get up after a beat and tell the Marines again, what I had told the lieutenant -- that this man -- all of these wounded men -- were the same ones from yesterday. That they had been disarmed treated and left here.

At that point the Marine who fired the shot became aware that I was in the room. He came up to me and said, "I didn't know sir-I didn't know." The anger that seemed present just moments before turned to fear and dread.

The wounded man then tries again to talk to me in Arabic.

He says, "Yesterday I was shot... please... yesterday I was shot over there -- and talked to all of you on camera -- I am one of the guys from this whole group. I gave you information. Do you speak Arabic? I want to give you information." (This man has since reportedly been located by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service which is handling the case.)

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.

The area, however, was still hot. And there were American casualties to be moved first.

Also, the squad that entered the mosque on Saturday was different than the one that had led the attack on Friday.

It's reasonable to presume they may not have known that these insurgents had already been engaged and subdued a day earlier. Yet when this new squad engaged the wounded insurgents on Saturday, perhaps really believing they had been fighting or somehow posed a threat -- those Marines inside knew from their training to check the insurgents for weapons and explosives after disabling them, instead of leaving them where they were and waiting outside the mosque for the squad I was following to arrive.

During the course of these events, there was plenty of mitigating circumstances like the ones just mentioned and which I reported in my story. The Marine who fired the shot had reportedly been shot in the face himself the day before.

I'm also well aware from many years as a war reporter that there have been times, especially in this conflict, when dead and wounded insurgents have been booby-trapped, even supposedly including an incident that happened just a block away from the mosque in which one Marine was killed and five others wounded. Again, a detail that was clearly stated in my television report.

No one, especially someone like me who has lived in a war zone with you, would deny that a solider or Marine could legitimately err on the side of caution under those circumstances. War is about killing your enemy before he kills you.

In the particular circumstance I was reporting, it bothered me that the Marine didn't seem to consider the other insurgents a threat -- the one very obviously moving under the blanket, or even the two next to me that were still breathing.

I can't know what was in the mind of that Marine. He is the only one who does.

But observing all of this as an experienced war reporter who always bore in mind the dark perils of this conflict, even knowing the possibilities of mitigating circumstances -- it appeared to me very plainly that something was not right. According to Lt. Col Bob Miller, the rules of engagement in Falluja required soldiers or Marines to determine hostile intent before using deadly force. I was not watching from a hundred feet away. I was in the same room. Aside from breathing, I did not observe any movement at all.

Making sure you know the basis for my choices after the incident is as important to me as knowing how the incident went down. I did not in any way feel like I had captured some kind of "prize" video. In fact, I was heartsick. Immediately after the mosque incident, I told the unit's commanding officer what had happened. I shared the video with him, and its impact rippled all the way up the chain of command. Marine commanders immediately pledged their cooperation.

We all knew it was a complicated story, and if not handled responsibly, could have the potential to further inflame the volatile region. I offered to hold the tape until they had time to look into incident and begin an investigation -- providing me with information that would fill in some of the blanks.

For those who don't practice journalism as a profession, it may be difficult to understand why we must report stories like this at all -- especially if they seem to be aberrations, and not representative of the behavior or character of an organization as a whole.

The answer is not an easy one.

In war, as in life, there are plenty of opportunities to see the full spectrum of good and evil that people are capable of. As journalists, it is our job is to report both -- though neither may be fully representative of those people on whom we're reporting. For example, acts of selfless heroism are likely to be as unique to a group as the darker deeds. But our coverage of these unique events, combined with the larger perspective - will allow the truth of that situation, in all of its complexities, to begin to emerge. That doesn't make the decision to report events like this one any easier. It has, for me, led to an agonizing struggle -- the proverbial long, dark night of the soul.

I knew NBC would be responsible with the footage. But there were complications. We were part of a video "pool" in Falluja, and that obligated us to share all of our footage with other networks. I had no idea how our other "pool" partners might use the footage. I considered not feeding the tape to the pool -- or even, for a moment, destroying it. But that thought created the same pit in my stomach that witnessing the shooting had. It felt wrong. Hiding this wouldn't make it go away. There were other people in that room. What happened in that mosque would eventually come out. I would be faced with the fact that I had betrayed truth as well as a life supposedly spent in pursuit of it.

When NBC aired the story 48-hours later, we did so in a way that attempted to highlight every possible mitigating issue for that Marine's actions. We wanted viewers to have a very clear understanding of the circumstances surrounding the fighting on that frontline. Many of our colleagues were just as responsible. Other foreign networks made different decisions, and because of that, I have become the conflicted conduit who has brought this to the world.

The Marines have built their proud reputation on fighting for freedoms like the one that allows me to do my job, a job that in some cases may appear to discredit them. But both the leaders and the grunts in the field like you understand that if you lower your standards, if you accept less, than less is what you'll become.

There are people in our own country that would weaken your institution and our nation Ã¢â¬âby telling you it's okay to betray our guiding principles by not making the tough decisions, by letting difficult circumstances turns us into victims or worseÃ¢â¬Â¦villains.

I interviewed your Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Willy Buhl, before the battle for Falluja began. He said something very powerful at the time-something that now seems prophetic. It was this:

"We're the good guys. We are Americans. We are fighting a gentleman's war here -- because we don't behead people, we don't come down to the same level of the people we're combating. That's a very difficult thing for a young 18-year-old Marine who's been trained to locate, close with and destroy the enemy with fire and close combat. That's a very difficult thing for a 42-year-old lieutenant colonel with 23 years experience in the service who was trained to do the same thing once upon a time, and who now has a thousand-plus men to lead, guide, coach, mentor -- and ensure we remain the good guys and keep the moral high ground."

I listened carefully when he said those words. I believed them.

So here, ultimately, is how it all plays out: when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera -- the story of his death became my responsibility.

The burdens of war, as you so well know, are unforgiving for all of us.

I pray for your soon and safe return. Kevin 1:37 PM

[url]http://www.kevinsites.net/2004_11_21_archive.html#110107420331292115[/url]

Send him back to his unit -S.

Faust

2004-11-28 05:39 | User Profile

Sertorius,

Great Post. I think that is pretty much the way it went down.