[. . .]
"The old man should have read the bilingual notices that American soldiers tack to their rear bumpers in Iraq: 'Keep 50m or deadly force will be applied.' In Ramadi, the capital of central Anbar province, where 17 suicide-bombs struck American forces during the month-long Muslim fast of Ramadan in the autumn, the marines are jumpy. Sometimes, they say, they fire on vehicles encroaching with 30 metres, sometimes they fire at 20 metres: 'If anyone gets too close to us we fucking waste them,' says a bullish lieutenant. 'It's kind of a shame, because it means we've killed a lot of innocent people.'" [my emphasis]
[. . .]
This is no fault of our Marines. Wasn't their choice to be there and they're doing what they have to in order to stay alive while trying to keep some semblance of peace. It's just sad that they have to have the 'kill 'em all and let God sort out the mess' mentality. No, it's criminal, not on the Marines' part, but on the part of the Bush administration.
No comments:
Post a Comment