Marine Corps Moms: "Let's hear it for the Marines"

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November 24, 2004

"Let's hear it for the Marines"

Marine wife, Mary Helen, sent this opinion by Janan Ganesh as published in the London Times:

The motto of the US Marine Corps is Semper Fidelis, or �always faithful�. And faith is exactly what the Western media eschew in their relentlessly cynical coverage of the American Armed Forces, which plunged to a new nadir last week with the outrage at a Marine who shot dead an injured and unarmed Fallujah terrorist. Their determination to portray the Americans as trigger-happy louts and the Iraqi terrorists as mere �rebels� slanders the former, sanctifies the latter and betrays everybody who trusts journalists to be objective.
Each American transgression is covered exhaustively and reproachfully, while triumphs, such as the trouble-free elections in Afghanistan and the reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructure, are treated as background noise. The torture of a few dozen prisoners in Abu Ghraib, for example, received far more attention than the restoration of the Marsh Arabs� homeland.

And this bias predates the Iraq war. If you get your news from Channel 4, you probably believe that the detainees at Guantanamo Bay are wide-eyed young gadflies who were enjoying an innocuous 18-30 holiday in glamorous Tora Bora before being kidnapped by rampaging Navy Seals. The truth is that many are al-Qaeda members who fought coalition forces during the invasion, but whose crimes are too legally vague to guarantee a conviction in court. America is therefore faced with the choice of releasing known enemies or detaining them indefinitely. That they choose the latter is not only sensible but generous � any of history�s previous superpowers, such as Soviet Russia � would have shot them on sight.

Jack Nicholson�s �you can�t handle the truth� routine in A Few Good Men has become an iconic monologue of modern cinema, but the point he was making is rarely grasped. The injustice Nicholson laments is not that we expect a noble minority to pay the blood price for our security � it was ever thus � but that we demand the right to tell them how to do it. Shackled by laws, norms and protocol concocted by legalists, the US Armed Forces � who have done more for freedom of the press than all the world�s journalists combined � are put in an impossible position. It is nauseating enough that they are now casually disparaged as �hicks� and �rednecks� by do-nothing civilians, without the supposedly objective media joining in.

Semper Fidelis is exactly right. The Marine who shot this unarmed enemy was responding to what he perceived as an immediate threat. There have been numerous instances of enemy combatants faking death or injury and then shooting or blowing up our troops. In this case, the Marine didn't know and should not be expected to determine if the enemy was unarmed before shooting. He reacted just as he had been trained - to protect his brother Marines. The ultimate goal of warfare is to make sure the other guy dies and this Marine achieved that goal. For that, he deserves praise, not condemnation.

Posted by Deb at November 24, 2004 03:52 PM

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My thought: If the critics think they can do a better job, give 'em a wepon and point 'em into (take your pick--Fallujah--Mosul--anywhere in An-Bar.
INSURGENT FAKING DEAD FIRES ON MARINES
Public Affairs Office, 1st MEF ^ | 11-21-04 | CaptBradley Gordon
Release # 1122-04-0801 FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Marines from the 1st Marine Division shot and killed an insurgent who while faking dead opened fire on the Marines who were conducting a security and clearing patrol through the streets here at approximately 3:45 p.m. today.

Posted by: Dave H. at November 24, 2004 06:05 PM

Boy, thanks Deb. I see no need to keep any distance between me and a box of tissue while reading these latest stories, from the Thanksgiving feasting Marines to the real tear jerker story of the (appropriately referenced) "precious cargo" by Major Zarnik. I' a MESS! I wonder if it the letter had a shot at breaking up any of the fallow ground in the hearts of the K Sites, Dan Rathers, et al., of this world!

It seems the "Al Jazeera, USA mediahadeen" daily gives me reason to become increasingly loathsome of them. I was just sick about the attempts of the lame stream media to crucify this Marine, after THEY sentenced him in their court of media abuse & misinformation.

Someone at another blog linked this online petition that minute by minute (if not second by second) is gaining signatures of support for the Marine. This petition will be submitted to congress:

http://www.petitiononline.com/as123/petition.html

At the time of my posting, it's only 1,117 signatures away from reaching a QUARTER OF A MILLION!!! WOO HOO....err...uh....maybe I shoud say Ooo Rah!

Just for grins, on Wednesday, I averaged at how many people were signing perhour with in a 12 hour period (technically: 11 hrs. 50 mins.) and it was 925 people per hour!!!!!!!!! I was quite heartened...and of course, in need once again of tissue! Sheesh.

OK...strike that....since I started this post (and I'm a pretty fast typer), it's only 856 sig's shy of reaching 250k!!!!

God bless these Marines and soldiers. They certainly have mangaged to "own" a major chunk of "real estate" in my heart!

Thanks for the great stories, pics and letters, Deb.
....and now---812 sig's away from 250k! (~;

Posted by: CoLoRaDo KiT cAt at November 26, 2004 04:01 PM