Be Most Careful in Judging This Marine
11-17-2004
Be Most Careful in Judging This Marine
By Raymond Perry
The current media blitz on the shooting of an injured Iraqi insurgent by a Marine in Fallujah last Saturday highlights the current inability of the news media today to provide informed and accurate background to a story (for example, see “Military Investigates Shooting of Wounded Insurgent,” CNN.com, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2004). It is of vast importance that in the initial coverage of a story of this kind that the media intelligently and accurately place this story in full context, but so far, this has not occurred.
First the Geneva Conventions impose limits on warfare to reduce unnecessary suffering and protect combatants and noncombatants alike. These conventions were written to constrain organized armed forces that are subservient to a sovereign and will obey organized laws.
In the present case in Iraq, the insurgents not only are not subservient to a sovereign but have made it eminently clear that they will not abide by any set of laws. They have chosen to exercise a level of inhumanity unseen since the Mongolian Hordes overran much of the known world. Just consider their kidnapping and likely murder of Iraqi civilian aid worker Margaret Hassan.
As an organized and humane nation, the United States nevertheless holds itself to these standards regardless of the opponent’s adherence or lack of it. This is not because of any threat of penalty of international law but because of what we think about ourselves as a free and courageous nation.
Second, the Geneva Conventions proscribe further destructive or injurious actions by individuals or formations when an opponent has become hors de combat. The alleged killing of an injured and apparently incapable insurgent by this one Marine is the crux of the issue.
What the media has ignored in the hullabaloo over this potentially criminal act and its videotaping is the obligation of the insurgent or the insurgent forces under that same international code.
The Geneva Conventions impose on those that become hors de combat the obligation to cease all combatant actions. The booby-trapping of insurgents’ bodies to cause injury or death to coalition soldiers is clearly in gross violation of these conventions. Similarly, the secreting of a weapon so that an injured insurgent may “take one more Marine with them” is equally in violation.
There is an obligation for the fourth estate and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International to understand the full scope of the Geneva Conventions and apply them equally to both sides. That it is enormously easier to tell only one side of the story is no excuse for effectively slanting the story and discredits these organizations.
Finally, the context in which these Marines or any other member of the armed forces of this nation operate must be effectively communicated. In this case, this Marine – like the other troops in Fallujah – was operating in a combat environment where he and others must make life-or-death decisions in a split-second.
The Iraqi insurgents, like their counterparts throughout the world, have themselves asserted the right to do whatever inhuman acts that appear to suit their cause. In the case of these young Marines in Fallujah, that means that they booby-trap bodies and conceal weapons for a final attempt to kill.
The crux of this issue is that if this one Marine, in his heart, saw something that he felt was a threat to him or his team, he was fully justified under the Geneva Conventions in acting as he did. In reviewing his actions, Marine Corps and Central Command officials must search for the full truth of what he was thinking in the minutes or seconds preceding the shooting.
In my experience, when a criminal acts, he shows certain characteristics. In this kind of case, it would be to isolate a victim followed by the act of demonstrating power over that victim. From what I have seen in the videotape excerpts, these elements were missing. The Marine acted immediately after entering the room and discovering the wounded insurgents.
Employing the ruse of injury to deceive our soldiers into coming within deadly range of a weapon is a patently illegal act. The insurgents have chosen this tactic and the news media must clearly provide “equal time” in news coverage to confirming the illegality of the insurgents’ choice. The acts taken by those such as this Marine to protect himself and his team must be viewed with this lens and no other.
When organizations such as Amnesty International do not seek to hold both sides of the conflict fully responsible for their part of adhering to the Geneva Conventions they are effectively advancing the interests of the favored side – the Iraqi insurgents who have already ignored the laws of war. In one recent online news article presenting Amnesty International’s assessment, it is clear that the group has chosen to ignore the responsibility of the insurgents to proscribe continued warlike acts by those that become hors de combat. In ignoring this key element, the human rights activists themselves lose credibility over this issue.
In a DefenseWatch article in August 2004 (“On the New Front Lines”), I wrote that the ongoing War on Terrorism will be partly won or lost as the sum of many, many small decisions by those Americans serving in law enforcement. In the same vein, our soldiers must feel that their decisions, taken in the split seconds of deadly combat, will be supported and defended. If we do not do this, they will slowly learn to avoid making them. This nation cannot allow such a self-defeating process to begin.
Since the Iraqi insurgents have chosen to attempt to continue combat actions after injury or even death, under the Geneva Conventions it is irrelevant that this particular insurgent was incapable of further action. By the previous actions of the group, the insurgents have given up those protections.
Injured insurgents must now be proven, one by one and with great care, to harbor neither intent nor capability of inflicting injury to our soldiers. Until that is proven, our soldiers are fully justified in reacting instinctively to perceived threatening acts of whatever nature.
Based on a careful reading of press accounts thus far, I believe that this nation must find it in its heart to sustain this young Marine’s decision as it stands, unless officials investigating the incident can confirm a clear case of criminal intent on the Marine’s part.
It is of equal importance that the news media learn to understand the whole of the issue – in particular the severe choices confronting this one Marine – and fully and intelligently inform the American people of the full context of this tragic incident.
Finally, it is incumbent on the rest of us to take with a grain of salt – or where appropriate, ignore altogether – those international organizations that do not equably apply the Geneva Conventions to both sides in the bitter Iraqi conflict.
Lt. Raymond Perry USN (Ret.) is a DefenseWatch Contributing Editor. He can be reached at cos1stlt@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/c...07813100103942
Ellie
WTF is Going On in The USMC??
:marine: This combat Marine should never have been removed from his squad/unit; plus, being singled out pending an investigation...if Marine Generals and the CIC [GW BUSH] make this decorated/combat Marine [their scapegoat];then, WTF are we doing in Diaper/head land in the first place??..playing at GI Joe or the local "paintball joint"??..."A Good Raghead is a Dead Raghead" [USMC Survivor's Manual]...Gung-F-Ho...SSGT CHRIS SARNO-USMC FMF :marine:
The Above With Frank Salvato
:marine: Hey Salvati...you played both sides of this controversy..."butt the freakin' out"...you are not a wounded combat Marine in the assault phase of the attack on a hotly contested building...those wounded Ragheads had fired at this Marine assault unit with lethal force...entering this structure, Marine reaction is instantainious with no time for reading the Geneva Convention preamble to a resolute enemy...this combat Marine performed up to the highest Navy/Marine orders of the day...he deserves acclaim; not an ass-kicking!!:marine: Semper Fi, Mac