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AMERICAN LIFE AND POLITICS

By Mel Ingram

“The military code of justice was designed to handle

such questions. I say, let the system work!”

Article MV-5 in a series presented on the
FEATURE PAGE OF THE HERRICKREPORT.COM

Trial of A Combat Marine

Just for this one volume, I want to stray a bit from what has become known as moral values, or more accurately, Biblical Values. However, I’ll steal the thunder from the Democrats and contend that this situation qualifies because a young Marine made a moral decision when he pulled the trigger on a terrorist during a combat situation. The trial of this young Marine for killing a terrorist in Iraq was being carried out under the watchful eyes of a TV camera. The courts martial of man for a battlefield impropriety due to the horrific incident is currently creating news. I want to underscore those words, ‘combat situation’. And please remember that this Marine was well aware of the news cameraman at his back, so why would he commit “murder” under these conditions?

The terrorist was at first playing dead, then he suddenly began to move – the Marine’s buddy was under eminent threat – so the young Marine shot the terrorist – DEAD! So one wonders why all the furor? Please read the following letter to familiarize yourself with all this commotion:

THROUGH A FALSE LENS DARKLY
(NBC’s DISPICABLE EXPLOITATION OF A YOUNG MARINE IN COMBAT)

Combat is not a “reality” show. It is a parallel universe of reluctant pilgrims where the rules are harsh and mistakes rarely forgiven. There are no “life lines” or safety nets. It is a place of unimaginable violence, horror and sudden death. When adrenalin, fear, and fatigue flow through a man’s veins like a drug, there are no time outs -- and often, no time to think.

In this universe, there are no return matches. Only an ever present “fear factor” beyond the imaginings of even Hollywood’s most perverted. It is something a man never forgets, and is forever reluctant to speak about afterwards – if he is lucky enough to come home.

Compare this to NBC’s universe where greed and moral cowardice is the engine that drives their world. Somewhere in the dark bowels of that putrid planet, a degenerate (and anonymous) producer decided to use a miniscule film clip of Marines in combat as unwitting actors in his pursuit of ratings. This is not “news” nor is it “journalism”. It is politically correct pornography done for profit.

With a thirty second film clip from a two dimensional camera, NBC has managed to create a counterfeit morality play that threatens the life and future of a brave young Marine. But of course Truth is a language rarely spoken in this dark kingdom of the networks unless it is coincidental to the ratings.

This young Marine and his squad had been in combat for seven days. Does the hero producer at NBC have any idea what this actually entails?
No sleep to speak of for starters. No showers and often no time to eat. Repeated rushes of adrenalin leave you sick to your stomach and intensely thirsty. There is fear you can smell above the stench of your own unwashed body. And then there is the smell of blood… None of these things can pass through the soulless technology of a camera.

This Marine had been shot in the face three days earlier. His comrade was killed. Yet he returned to his unit. There are few human units as close as a Marine squad in combat. It is, if possible, even closer than a loving family.

Imagine then, your comrade who is closer than a brother, is hit as he kneels next to you. You will remember thinking how much blood there is. You grip his hand fiercely as “Doc”, your Navy corpsman works frantically to save

his life. But there is too much damage and at the end your brother calls out for his mother. You don’t forget these things either.

Viet Nam was a war of great ironies, not the least of which was the candidacy 40 years later of a self confessed war criminal who nearly won the presidency of the United States. Doubly ironic that Kerry’s own crewman noted that the “hero” “won” his Silver Star for shooting a wounded and dying Viet Cong teenager in the back. Where was NBC for that one? Now this is an irony a grunt can really appreciate.

In Iraq we are dealing with a species of subhuman lower than a rabid animal. They are not warriors. They are not even men. They are poisonous vermin that have relinquished all rights as human beings. With their beheadings and butchery they have earned the right to be exterminated.

And so this Marine and his squad, after days of combat and fully aware that many of the “dead” or “wounded” have been booby trapped or hiding weapons, enter a charnel room. On the floor are several dead or wounded Iraqis. One moves. In that eternal instant of time between a heartbeat and a trigger squeeze the Marine shoots him. NBC’s camera couldn’t have been any closer. And it couldn’t have missed more of the truth had it tried.

These young men are not accidentally Marines. Theirs is a hard earned honor that is treasured for a lifetime. They represent the finest Americans of their generation. Honor is part of their warrior’s code. And yet NBC didn’t even note that this Marine’s comrades were unanimous in their support of his actions.

I have every confidence that the leadership of the United States Marine Corps will stand just as fast in the face of political correctness as this Marine’s squad has done in the face of battle. To do otherwise grants victory to planet NBC and the slithering denizens of its lower depths.

May God bless and protect this young Marine and all his comrades in arms.

Semper Fi my brothers,

John Schalestock
USMC 1960 - 1964

Comment on the above article by cousin Bambi

I am so stuck by the following statement in John Schalestock's letter that I feel I have to say something: "In Iraq we are dealing with a species of subhuman lower than a rabid animal. They are not warriors. They are not even men. They are poisonous vermin that have relinquished all rights as human beings. With their beheadings and butchery they have earned the right to be exterminated."

I am sure this is how many people in combat (from all sides and times) come to think and feel about the enemy they face. And in moments of danger, crisis, and terror, this kind of mind-set is understandable and expedient. Unfortunately, it is also the kind of essentializing and demonizing in which so many Americans here at home are engaging. This allows "us" to see ourselves to be purely good and righteous and to see "them" as purely bad, non-human, and undeserving of basic human rights. I am not asking that people speak in a more "politically correct" way, but that we have the courage and moral commitment to resist this kind of reassuring but wrong (morally, practically, logically wrong) thinking and the actions that produces. Surely we can recognize the unbearable strain under which combatants are forced to make quick decisions without using the same excuses to let ourselves off the hook for avoiding more complicated thought. We who have the luxury of the time and safety to make more thoughtful, careful, and morally reasoned decisions have an obligation to do so. To endorse the waging of a war because it is awful for the soldiers and to censure critique and considered evaluation of the actions that are part of the war (not that NBC's coverage of this incident is necessarily a good example of what I mean by 'considered evaluation') is wrong, dangerous, and morally lazy.

/s/ Bambi

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My rejoinder to Bambi

Bambi, I agree that it's far too simple a solution to reduce the totality of our enemies to this extreme description; but given their demonstrated propensity for maiming, torture and beheading, it's understandable why such attitudes are so commonplace. Certainly, there is reason for understanding, if not excusing, the reaction of people who find themselves in the throws of combat. Let's not leave it up to politicians and those who've never experienced combat to judge the combat actions of one of our brave soldiers who was in harms way. The military code of justice was designed to handle such questions. I say, let the system work!

As for the rest of us non-combatants, we are obligated to acknowledge why these terrorists may be so quick to involve themselves in such grizzly behavior. Their self-convinced righteousness stems from religious training in Islam, usually from an early age, and almost always includes religious training in their Wahhabism schools and conclaves. Our self-convinced righteousness stems from our religious up-bringing, our education in a free society, belief in Almighty God and the Authority of the Bible.

They are known to believe that killing and other extreme anti-social behavior in furthering their cause is justified, and they believe themselves to be licensed by Allah (jihad) to commit covert 'offensive' atrocities. Such actions are justified in the eyes of their peers and religious leaders and they become 'martyred by carrying out unspeakable acts of terrorism. Many Americans are known to believe that

On the other hand, many Americans feel war is 'justified', taking license from our Judeo-Christian heritage, especially in the face of terrioristic aggression, primarily practiced by the growing majority of Muslims brainwashed by radical Wahhabism. Regardless of ones stance on war and peace, the extreme actions of "beheadings and butchery" leaves no room for civil discourse concerning the impropriety of their deep seated regressions or convoluted causes, including their environmental, social, religious and mental conditioning.

There is a huge difference between the conditioning of our military and that of our enemy. Both adversaries have spent lifetimes, albeit occasionally short-spanned, developing their belief systems and culminating in their willingness to wage both offensive and defensive combat, regardless of civil, social or religious merit.

We dare not overlook the reality of war. It's not how we play the game of combat -- it's whether we survive!

Just one man's observations and opinions, but what do my readers think?

Mel Ingram