Marine: "I want to go and kill people, so we can go home,"

[bigtree]

Marines Break Pre-Battle Tension
Associated Press
November 7, 2004

NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq - For U.S. Marines awaiting orders to attack Iraq's rebel-held Fallujah, the bags are packed, trucks are loaded and letters have been sent home, leaving one final, pre-assault diversion: the "Ben-Hur."

Blowing off steam, hundreds of Marines took their cue from the 1959 Charlton Heston classic and gathered Saturday at a base near Fallujah for a slapstick chariot race featuring cobbled-together carts and confiscated Iraqi horses.

Tension and anticipation ran high among the young Marines surrounding Fallujah, many of whom have never tasted combat.

"We're ready to go. I'm just ready to get this done. I want to go and kill people, so we can go home," said Lance Cpl. Joseph Bowman, 20, from North Zulch, Texas. "Kill them and go home, that's all we can do now."

But first, the Marines had a little fun with the horses.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,FL_marines_110704,00.html

[davepc]

1. Marines are our warrior class in this society

And they don't speak in eloquent terms about human life, because their job is to take it. Thats what they train to do. Every society has a warrior class, every society has warriors. Societies that have not been able to survive very long didn't have warriors who held the proper mindset.

Its not PC, but when the Barbarians are at the gate, I want that Marine on the ramparts. He'll drive them away.

My problem is with the Administration and policies that have sent that Marine to the wrong place at the wrong time to fight the wrong war.

[JI7]

2. i agree

[bigtree]

3. well put dave

This green recruit will likely not repeat this after he sees real combat. I truly believe that we share responsibility, and blame where it applies, for whatever horror that we put these young soldiers up to. Still, I've been running the song, 'Universal Soldier' through my head lately and it won't stop.

He’s 5 foot 2 and he’s 6 feet 4
He fights with missiles and with spears
He’s all of 31 and he’s only 17.
He’s been a soldier for a thousand years

He’s a catholic, a Hindu, an atheist, a Jain
A Buddhist, and a Baptist and Jew.
And he knows he shouldn’t kill
And he knows he always will kill
You’ll for me my friend and me for you

And He’s fighting for Canada.
He’s fighting for France.
He’s fighting for the USA.
And he’s fighting for the Russians.
And he’s fighting for Japan
And he thinks we’ll put an end to war this way.

And He’s fighting for democracy,
He’s fighting for the reds
He says it’s for the peace of all.
He’s the one, who must decide,
who’s to live and who’s to die.
And he never sees the writing on the wall.

But without him,
how would Hitler have condemned him at Dachau?
Without him Caesar would have stood alone
He’s the one who gives his body
as a weapon of the war.
And without him all this killing can’t go on

He’s the universal soldier
And he really is the blame
His orders comes from
far away no more.

They come from him.
And you and me.
And brothers can’t you see.
This is not the way we put an end to war

[arewenotdemo]

4. In this case the US Marines ARE the

"barbarians at the gate".

[davepc]

5. thats why we need to elect leaders to call him home

If it was up to me there would not be a single United States soldier or Marine outside the boundaries of the 50 states.

But instead we have an imperialistic administration and those Marines who joined for the right reasons are pawns in an empire building scheme being run out of the White House.

[arewenotdemo]

6. I totally agree

[rockydem]

7. Well said - that Marine was just speaking the plain truth

He wants to go home - he's not a 'crusader' he just wants to finish the job so he can eventually leave.

[0rganism]

8. Sucker! He isn't going home, he's going to Iran, or maybe Syria next

and we still have Colombia and Venezuela waiting in the wings.

Lots to do, young Jedi, lots of places to go in the next four years.

[gratuitous]

9. That's right

And he's not going to just kill a few people and go home. Not even the U.S. military has successfully stamped out every last vestige of a person's humanity. If the fellow quoted in the story really does kill a few people, when (if) he gets home, he'll have to deal with the aftermath of that action. And if he doesn't attend to it, everyone around him will have to.

And, presuming he is successful in Iraq, that will just be the set-up for the next round of killing, whether it's Iran, Syria, Colombia or Venezuela. If he and his buddies are unsuccessful and they survive, well, go back to my first paragraph. At least there would then be a hope that my tax dollars would no longer go toward killing a bunch of people who have never done anything to me, and who never meant me any harm. There is no longer any plausible "self-defense" reason that can be asserted.