On Monday night, several news networks showed a Marine
”
apparently
”
shooting a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a mosque in
Al-Fallujah.
Dear Editor,
On Monday night, several news networks showed a Marine “apparently” shooting a wounded and unarmed Iraqi in a mosque in Al-Fallujah. It is stated that the videotape shows a squad of Marines entering the building and seeing several Iraqis lying against a wall, either dead or severely wounded. According to a news release, a Marine shouts something about one Iraqi feigning death and then the Marine, who had been wounded the day before, shot the man in the head.
First of all, how would the Marine have known whether or not the man was unarmed, particularly when, as I understood it, several Marines had been killed or wounded by Iraqis who had feigned death? Certainly, the correspondent who took the videotape could not have known the man was unarmed unless he had examined him before the shooting, which doesn’t seem logical.
Unless you have actually been in and fought as an infantry person, you can’t imagine the pressure and tension that exists in actual combat where in most cases it is to kill or be killed by persons you don’t even know.
I do know. I was a Marine platoon commander who fought in the hills and land in Korea. Before taking a particular hill, we were advised that some enemies feigned death and after you passed them, they would shoot you in the back. So we had to be very careful in these cases.
The Marine who was willing to sacrifice his life should not in this case, be charged with anything despite the “law of war” espoused by the Geneva Convention.
Anthony J. Sota, Hollister
