Vigilante Marines wanted?
It’s important to separate what the issue is on a larger scale from the instance that reminds us something is wrong.
On November 13, 2004 Kevin Sites, a freelance videographer, kept focus on a cryptic scene of Marines in a war-torn mosque. The wounded men inside had been shot, wounded, treated and disarmed. Some were dead, others were waiting.
A Marine claims one of them is playing dead and fires a round into the wounded’s head, his propped up leg limps to the ground.
“He’s dead now,” comes from the background.
I invite you, I implore you to go to Kevin Site’s blog and read his account near the bottom of the page. He writes a letter to the Marine unit he was in company with explaining his reasons and feelings in releasing the video to NBC.
March 10, 2004 U.S. Marines fire on a car carrying a rescued hostage and the Italian agent who had secured her release. The agent died. The U.S. report finds the soldiers not at fault.
Prisoner abuse isn’t immediately part of this discussion, but it isn’t far from the topic either. In both cases above, I wonder how the Marines themselves felt about these deaths. Other video has been released showing burning Iraqis as U.S. Humvees pass by at a great clip.
How can anyone begin to entrench their minds deep enough to understand the great psychological impacts of war zone situations? How do we decide if our soldiers are acting improperly or horrifically? What would our reaction be if an Iraqi citizen suicide bombed what they thought was an insurgent camp?
I have a fearful pain in my stomach that some people would think ‘take that’ if the role was reversed in suicide bombs. It would be decried the way racist politicians decry racism in public, the quiet prejudice that still infects a great number of people in the U.S. and abroad.
Do we have this same insensitivity to torture?
I think enough of us do.
Enough is very powerful. Enough is a word with just the right amount of power to cause nothing to happen. It’s the number needed to occasionally feel anger about U.S. torture policies, but do nothing about it. It’s the number the government has to placate and pacify to continue unabated.
Are they guilty or not? That’s outside the scope of this topic. We could discuss it more, but it would have to make it to court. I mean, surely, a Marine on national video shooting a wounded man in the face at point blank would warrant at least a trial?
I suppose the idea is that we shouldn’t bite the hand that provides us freedom. The now cliche line ‘you can’t handle the truth’ seems to hold a less cliche meaning. A very fresh meaning.
It is my deep sense of patriotism that generates my anger towards this soldier and not the Marines. It’s this tarnish that we should take the strongest polish to. Marines are a proud an dedicated group of men and women, something the U.S. should be proud of.
Burying these stories, denying these accusations cripples the image of Marines.
During the war, I tried to take some relief in watching video and hearing testimony of Iraqi men, women and children welcoming liberators. War is the worst enemy of humanity, but I’m not so disillusioned to appreciate nobler rewards should they happen.
Can we expect that same reaction in future conflicts if the liberated know of these barbaric practices? Isn’t there an incumbent duty for a military from a nation that holds morals in such high regard to act morally?
War is ugly, but justice is a universal right.
If patriotism is the fence that bars justice from working, then I find it detestable. The U.S. report is merely a fact finding mission. Facts are good. Truth is better.
Where innocent life is lost so specifically, isn’t accountability just a matter of common sense?
I don’t know war time life. I’m not telling you anyone is guilty. My sense of journalism is such that I can’t claim much without a deep search of the facts.
What I do feel is a sense of wrongness. It is formed from a pattern of refusal to go to court. Should we be waiting for explicit pictures of soldiers posing with prisoners to finally get a legal inquiry? I would hope our standards are above the enemy we wish to vanquish.
When it comes to war time justice in the Middle East, it seems the U.S. has adopted a policy of drawing lines in the sand.
Have an opinion on the matter? I’d love to hear it. But more important than sharing here, consider telling these people. We don’t need the loudest people e-mailing the Congress over and over, we just need enough.
There’s a lot of focus on obedience in the marines. Someone I knew who was involved told me that if your commanding officer told you to shoot your friend, you shot your friend, no questions asked, that was that. I imagine that sort of training would desnsitize you to the sort of violence being discussed.
As for going to court…it is my understanding that in these sorts of cases, it is the state that prosecutes, and although I’m disappointed, I’m not surprised that the state isn’t keen on prosecuting what is essentially intended to be an extension of itself. I may write the senators about it, I have a few things I’ve been meaning to tell them about but haven’t gotten around to yet.
Personally, I don’t like the wartime excuses for anything. Lincoln was my favorite president until I learned about how he stamped all over the rights of the citizens under the excuse of holding the union together. It seems to me that, of all times, war is when we should be most focused on preserving our freedoms and ideals–after all, aren’t they supposed to be what we’re fighting for? Doing otherwise seems to me to be like going on a diet to lose weight but then injecting fat directly into your flesh.
Comment by Adkenar — May 10, 2005 @ 16:15
I’ve all but lost faith in the US and, more frighteningly, humanity in general. As much as I hate to say, people just tend to suck. We’ll forget the morality we stood upon yesterday at the drop of a pin and turn a blind eye to whatever it is we don’t want to see. Our idealism numbs our senses and dulls our ethics.
I’d love to write my senator or congressman, but I fear that there will never be “enough” of us to stem the tide of ignorant public opinion.
You’ve managed to severely depress me, dammit.
Comment by Jesse — May 12, 2005 @ 09:29
I think it is fair and healthy to go through an idealistic phase.
I heard somone once say you should be overly compassionate and liberal as a youth and restricted and measured as a conservative elder.
I hope this is just hogwash. The only reliable tie I’ve seen pan out in my experience is that money makes you fiscally conservative and socially skeptical and paranoid, if not down right mean.
The sheer mass of ‘enough’ necessary for any awesome change should seem depressing, if you place the burden of responsibility on yourself wholly. I’m becoming more individualistic because of the very problem you present.
I think, philosophically, the better answer is deontologically centered. For you non-philosophers out there, that means your value is in your duty, not the result it creates. There is a lot to this to debate, but I’m presenting this as my general schema for escaping depression. If I focus on doing the right thing, the end becomes something ridiculous.
My favorite enemy, in this regard, are capitalists using the ‘big picture’ to justify the little souls they trample on. If they were trying all they could to assuage every valued life, I’d buy it. That’s not the nature of these people, though you can see the influence of society when you consider the U.S. Military’s rather focused concern on reducing innocent deaths during military operations.
‘Enough’ people would be pissed if they didn’t ‘feel’ the military was doing all it could to lower collateral deaths. We are getting to the point to where we are dismissing the rights of prisoners and the enemy, something much harder for the general society to realize as being of equal importance.
Overall, it should be considered an improvement, but I think, where life is at stake, there is no rest for those who would tout liberties and justice for all.
In another blog of mine, I had a phrase I had quiped to sound intellectual, but I suddenly realize I believe it more and more.
I don’t have faith in humanity, but I believe in individuals.
Comment by JT — May 14, 2005 @ 02:38