Archive for April 15th, 2007
The Marines reported taking enemy fire
Apr 15th 2007RavenAfghanistan & Marine Corps & Politics & Raven & War
Does anyone have an IRRITATION METER?? If so let it be known my level of pissed off IRRITATION is at a high, no, dangerous point right now. I am SICK of the media going after the Marines.
Headline, bias:
Marines Killed Civilians, U.S. Says
From the Washington Post (does this surprise anyone?):
A preliminary U.S. military investigation indicates that more than 40 Afghans killed or wounded by Marines after a suicide bombing in a village near Jalalabad last month were civilians, the U.S. commander who ordered the probe said yesterday.
OK…the Commander is against the Spec Op Marines (MARSOC) to begin with. Intra-service politics have A LOT to do with this entire “incident”.
Maj. Gen. Frank H. Kearney III, head of Special Operations Command Central, also said there is no evidence that the Marine Special Operations platoon came under small-arms fire after the bombing, although the Marines reported taking enemy fire and seeing people with weapons. The troops continued shooting at perceived threats as they traveled miles from the site of the March 4 attack, he said. They hit several vehicles, killing at least 10 people and wounding 33, among them children and elderly villagers.
Sounds like another Haditha doesn’t it? Is the investigation over with already? So soon after the incident? And whose word is being given more respect: The Afghans or the Marines? Take a wild guess. Can we expect to hear Jack Murtha opine about this soon??
“We found . . . no brass that we can confirm that small-arms fire came at them,” Kearney said, referring to ammunition casings. “We have testimony from Marines that is in conflict with unanimous testimony from civilians at the sites,” Kearney said in a telephone interview…
Uh huh…
The results of the preliminary investigation, which are not conclusive, are similar to the findings of an official Afghan human rights inquiry and contradict initial reports that the civilians might have been killed in a small-arms attack that followed the suicide bombing.
An official Human Rights inquiry? Written by the Afghans? This is another Haditha at work here…Marines are being found guilty of “war crimes” based on the words and accusations of our enemy in the cess pool. FUCK THIS SHIT.
The six-Humvee convoy had stopped at another U.S. camp near the Pakistan border and was on its way back to Jalalabad when a Toyota van moved to the shoulder along with other oncoming traffic. The van suddenly swerved between the first and second Humvees, and the suicide bomber detonated the bomb, Kearney said
The convoy was attacked. By radical suicidal Muslimes. Who would just as soon blow up US Marines as well as little children of the area.
Marines in the convoy believed that they were taking enemy fire from several locations along the sides of the road, Kearney said. They deemed vehicles along the road threats and shot at five or six of them — one because it failed to respond to their direction, and another because it appeared to be trying to force them in a certain direction, Kearney said.
Why does this Commander seem hell bent to discredit the Marines version of what happened? Because of political pressure from his higher uppities.
Kearney said that his command’s “major concern is to protect the Afghan people” but that the platoon’s alleged actions had made it impossible for the unit to continue its mission in Afghanistan. Late last month he ordered the platoon of about 30 men and its 120-man parent unit, a Marine Special Operations company, to withdraw from Afghanistan, where it had been operating from a small base in eastern Nangahar province.
I think we have a case of misguided loyalties here. A commander of American forces first concern should not be for the enemy and let’s not forget, the enemy is alive and well in Afghanistan. The MARSOC, the Marines, did what they do best which is far less than any Army command is expected to do. MARSOC should never have been created; Marines don’t need special titles and commands; they do the job they are asked to do. Attack them and they will fight back. People will die. Marines are not the Army…who get attacked but don’t always fight back. The truth hurts, I know…and I will catch some flack for being politically incorrect towards the US Army (who I DO respect, just not nearly as much as the US Marine Corps). Once again I will be standing with the Marines.
Cross Posted @ ARS.
