Honor the flag

[billc]

Now, here is the important difference that our guys never get credit for...as seen in the post about this incident...had radical muslims come on our wounded civilians after their attack, they would have tortured or killed them or both...what did our professional American fighting men do when they found children were in the van...

Interviews with Ethan McCord[edit source | editbeta]

Ethan McCord, the soldier seen in the video carrying the injured boy, recalled in an interview on The Marc Steiner Show that on arrival at the scene, "The first thing I did was run up to the van...". After attending the girl's wounds and handing her to a medic, McCord was ordered to take position on the roof but he returned to the van to find the boy moving his hand. "I grabbed him and ran to the Bradley myself". McCord states he was yelled at for not "pulling security." "The first thing I thought of ... was my children at home". He later sought help for psychological trauma, but was ridiculed by his NCO and told that if he were to go to the mental health officer, "there would be repercussions".[SUP][85][/SUP]

Our guys rendered aid and helped them get medical attention...

Both children were evacuated to the 28th Combat Support Hospital via Forward Operating BaseLoyalty, then transferred to an Iraqi medical facility the next day.[SUP][7][/SUP] This account of first bringing the wounded children to the Combat Support Hospital appears to be contradicted by orders by radio that form part of the video record, which forbids it and orders that the children be handed over to local police.[SUP][107][/SUP]

How would those children have been treated if radical muslim terrorists had been in the reverse roles here...?

 

[billc]

A final bit on the attack...

While the Air Weapons Team was providing support at the first engagement area they were informed by ground troops that they were receiving small arms fire from the south/southwest. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/8 then located multiple individuals with weapons about 400 meters east of coalition forces and was given clearance to engage the targets.

However, the co-pilot/gunner then observed a child and some other non-combatants in the vicinity of the individuals and decided to hold off on the engagement until the non-combatants were clear. After the non-combatants were clear Crazyhorse 1/8 engaged the targets. The crew for Crazyhorse 1/9 could not engage due to target obfuscation from buildings and dust.[SUP][7][/SUP]

The team observed several individuals from this group, some possibly wounded, run into a large multistory building. The co-pilot/gunner for Crazyhorse 1/9 spotted three individuals near this building get into a red SUV and drive away to the west. For about 5 to 10 minutes the team diverted its attention to this vehicle. However, according to the co-pilot for Crazyhorse 1/8 they failed to positively identify the occupants as combatants and returned to the previous engagement area.[SUP][7][/SUP]

Yeah, why is it that these things always neglect to show when our guys work to not kill civilians...and focus only on the accidents or the nut jobs who get into the military...

 

[Steve]

Steve the thing is I dont care about other countries. I dont care about their bonds. I dont care about their flags. The topic was the US Flag not the French flag or this flag or that flag. I dont care if I devalue other countries because I do devalue them I hold MY military higher then all others, in fact I hold My US Marines above even other military branches in the US military. It is what it Is I dont care who it offends. Do other soldiers in other countries have the bond sure I have no doubt but that wasn't the topic. My point was and is still the same there are some folks that if you disrespect of the flag in front of them it could be harmful to your health. Not because the flag has any special powers but because of what it represents to them.

Ballen, I'm not saying you should care about anything. I am just observing that you are conflating two things that are related, but not the same. Reverence and respect for the flag is not the same as the brotherhood shared by members of the Marine Corps who have served together.

There are people who revere the flag greatly and you are risking bodily harm if you disrespect it in their presence. Undoubtedly true. But also, consider that the same is true for the Confederate flag in certain parts of this country, often by people who were unfit to serve in the military.

 

[ballen0351]

Ballen, I'm not saying you should care about anything. I am just observing that you are conflating two things that are related, but not the same. Reverence and respect for the flag is not the same as the brotherhood shared by members of the Marine Corps who have served together.

There are people who revere the flag greatly and you are risking bodily harm if you disrespect it in their presence. Undoubtedly true. But also, consider that the same is true for the Confederate flag in certain parts of this country, often by people who were unfit to serve in the military.

I'm not saying it only applies to the military members. I'm commenting about my beliefs and feelings and that of my circle which is military former military and of my family of which I was 5th generation military and other then my father we were all marines. Hell even my grandmother was in the Marine Corps. The flag is a personal thing. Some its nothing more then cloth others its a physical symbol of esprit de corps. Its not exclusive to one group but I personally don't care about other groups. I care about my group.

 

[Makalakumu]

I'm not saying it only applies to the military members. I'm commenting about my beliefs and feelings and that of my circle which is military former military and of my family of which I was 5th generation military and other then my father we were all marines. Hell even my grandmother was in the Marine Corps. The flag is a personal thing. Some its nothing more then cloth others its a physical symbol of esprit de corps. Its not exclusive to one group but I personally don't care about other groups. I care about my group.

Then if some hippie burns the flag or makes it into clothing, it shouldn't matter?

 

[billc]

Another look at the helicopter shooting of terrorists...

http://pjmedia.com/blog/shame-on-wi...agement-as-anti-american-propaganda-part-one/

As to who was killed...

The Mahdi Army is a Shiite paramilitary organization that operates like an organized crime family, and is infamous for both kidnapping fellow Iraqis for ransom and for brutal acts of sectarian violence — including beheadings and assassinations of Iraqi civilians and police.

The second part of the story...

http://pjmedia.com/blog/shame-on-wi...agement-as-anti-american-propaganda-part-two/

WikiLeaks would also have us believe that the presence of camera equipment should have stayed the guns of the American aircraft. Dishonestly, WikiLeaks does not mention the well-known fact that cameras are an integral part of the war for both sides, and that video and still cameras are commonly carried by militants. A few seconds of searching on the Internet would reveal militants filming attacks, from IED strikes to the alleged sniping of American and Iraqisoldiers and police.
We aren’t attempting to establish that these Reuters employees were terrorists — despite their “relaxed” behavior with the armed militants, which even WikiLeaks is forced to recognize. It is enough to note that even if the presence of cameras had been detected earlier, it in no way suggested that the armed men were anything other than terrorists.

Moments later, as the pilots continue to circle, a black van and two men on foot emerge to evacuate the wounded survivor of the attack. Curiously, the van that arrives in the short version of the video to move the wounded man appears as if it could be the same van spotted at the 41-second mark of the long version — sighted pulling up to a mosque. Vehicles such as these were commonly used to ferry militants and munitions, and the van shown in the longer video was captured pulling up to the front of a mosque — a favored location to hide weapons and militants because of policies that forbid U.S. troops from raiding them except under extraordinary circumstances.
The pilots make a logical assumption when the van and the extra men (who are curiously never mentioned by the WikiLeakers) pull up and infer that anyone pulling into a hot combat zone with the dust of explosions still hanging in the air may have nefarious purposes … such as helping wounded terrorists avoid capture, and recovering weapons before American ground forces can arrive. After requesting permission to fire — which is granted after a still of the gun camera footage is instantly transmitted to superiors — the van and the men around it are engaged and cut down.