Did you shoot them?

So, the Marines shot an injured prisoner inside a mosque while razing Fallujah.

Some dialogue:

“Did you shoot them?” the lieutenant asked.
“Roger that, sir,” the second Marine replied.
“Were they armed?” the lieutenant asked.
The second Marine shrugged in reply.

And the incident itself:


So, the Marines shot an injured prisoner inside a mosque while razing Fallujah.

Some dialogue:

“Did you shoot them?” the lieutenant asked.
“Roger that, sir,” the second Marine replied.
“Were they armed?” the lieutenant asked.
The second Marine shrugged in reply.

And the incident itself:

Sites (the reporter who witnessed this particular liberation – JP) saw the five wounded men left behind on Friday still in the mosque. Four of them had been shot again, apparently by members of the squad that entered the mosque moments earlier. One appeared to be dead, and the three others were severely wounded. The fifth man was lying under a blanket, apparently not having been shot a second time.

One of the Marines noticed that one of the severely wounded men was still breathing. He did not appear to be armed, Sites said.

The Marine could be heard insisting: “He’s f—ing faking he’s dead — he’s faking he’s f—ing dead.” Sites then watched as the Marine raised his rifle and fired into the man’s head from point-blank range.

“Well, he’s dead now,” another Marine said.

Not to worry though.

Bryan Whitman, a spokesman for the Defense Department, told NBC News that the military was investigating the incident observed by Sites. “We’re confident it will be a thorough investigation,” he said

Author: Justin Podur

Author of Siegebreakers. Ecology. Environmental Science. Political Science. Anti-imperialism. Political fiction. Teach at York U's FES. Author. Writer at ZNet, TeleSUR, AlterNet, Ricochet, and the Independent Media Institute.

7 thoughts on “Did you shoot them?”

  1. Shall we still pretend that
    Shall we still pretend that the american psyche, not only plotting but actually realizing this massacre (and how many others?) is just a bit over the side of the homicidal on to the path of the criminally insane, and has been so for quite some time? No, this little annecdote is a bit to much of a reminder of something that only people that live right in the middle of planet demencia(tm) could pass of as prime time entertainment/ But there are many (im guessing) who check this blog that don’t need to be reminded that there are many very sick people out there (and they are everywhere) that do this type of thing and see this type of shit as nothing more than that. I agree that things are getting very scary, but bringing an anecdote like this across the world just to make us a little more unerved is not nice. I really do prefer the anecdotes of hard working indigenous communities fighting against impossible odds in far off lands, if possible. Just a comment. eli

  2. Hi Elias! Thanks for the
    Hi Elias! Thanks for the comment. That’s a good point. In recent weeks I have strayed from that important part of the work, to cover the “invisible struggles”. I’ll try to get more of that back into the blog again.

  3. The shooting of the injured
    The shooting of the injured looked ugly because we ( the entertained ) saw it .I still ask myself if I lived in this village of the Bravest People in the Planet ” Fallujans” would I have the courage they have to fight bare handed against the greedy ,fanatic and ignorant occupiers.
    Don’t we know that the intention was slaughter ; all independent media were banned from Falluja except the “embedded ” ones who keep telling us the can’t tell us what they see now.Will they tell us in the future about the genocides we did nothing to stop.
    A question in mind ,are the american soldiers going to flush the corpses of the dead somewhere that we wont know how many they killed ( reminds me of Jinin)

  4. I can’t think of anything
    I can’t think of anything more cowardly than hiding in Mosque, using them to fire on other forces and then claiming violation of sanctuary.
    I still have family in Iraq. Don’t kid yourselves into thinking the population supports either the Saddamophilic “insurgents” or the foriegn fighters who want to take us back 1,000 years.

    Iraqis know it is not “Fallujan” there anyway, the fifth man on the tape, who one can see talking to the cameraman after the shooting has a NON IRAQI accent!

  5. I guess that last comment
    I guess that last comment means that, in addition to the comment spammers, we have trolls that have found the blog too. Not sure what I’ll do about it, but I am not going to let them destroy possibilities for constructive or interesting discussion on the blog.

    Trolls:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll

  6. Troll in Justin’s view =
    Troll in Justin’s view = someone from Iraq who disagrees with his narrow view. Interesting.

  7. Ahmet=ahmed in Arabic.
    Ahmet

    Ahmet=ahmed in Arabic.

    Ahmet is the Turkish equivalent of Ahmed. The change came after Latinization of the Turkish alphabet at the time of Kamal Ataturk.

    Conclusion Ahmet is either Turkish or a Turkish Kurd probably the latter (an Iraqi Kurd would write his name (or nick) as Ahme[u]d[/u] just as any Arab would.
    I don’t even think ahme(t) knows much of Arabic to distinguish a scared wounded man’s accent.
    Many moslems, just like peoples of other faiths, when confronted with destruction of their homes and deprived of their most basic needs would instinctively seek shelter in “houses of good”. The notion that all 1500 or so mosques of Falluja were or are centers of insurgency is ridiculous.
    Allawi in a press confernce before the destruction of Falluja, pointed to a displayed map of the city and said:
    ” These are the mosques of Falluja” more than a thousand pixels lit up. ” there the terrorists are hiding. These we will stike”.
    “These are the clinics and medical centers of Falluja” he continued ” there the terrorists are barricaded” more pixels lit up the flickering map “these we will strike”.
    “These are the terrorists’ centres” now virtually most of Falluja was covered with dots,”These we will strike” he smugly announced his doublechin shaking.
    The Americans made good on Allawi’s promise, virtually all mosques, medical centres, and houses in Falluja have been hit.
    The insurgency, it seems was in every house or public building in the city!

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