Nightmare

[billroper]

I had a nightmare last night.

I read comics. I have for a long time, mostly of the super-hero variety. And, every once in a while, I have one of the super-hero dreams.

This was a nightmare. I was fighting with a group of about twenty heroes, similar to the Legion of Super-Heroes, but not them in particular, although I do remember Karate Kid as being there. We were fighting a single bad guy of the Kid Miracleman class. (Thanos-plus class for Marvel fans, Mordru-class or better for DCU fans.) The devastation was incredible. Teammates were dropping left and right, injured and possibly dead.

Finally, the enemy went down. I was the last man standing. I didn't have much left myself, maybe enough for one more blast. But he was down and maybe dead.

And he got up. I fired my last blast at him and he staggered, but didn't go down.

"Too late, kid," he laughed. "I'm a quick healer."

I stared at him, out of power and out of weapons.

"I'm gonna do you a favor, kid, cause I like you. I'll be back in an hour and I'll be back at full strength. And then everything east of Harlem Avenue is going down, got it? So you just be west of Harlem and you'll be fine. I'll be seeing you later -- or not."

And he vanished.

People, ordinary people, started coming out of the wreckage and congratulating me on having beaten the bad guy.

"No!" I tried to explain. "You don't understand. He's coming back and we're all going to die! We have to get out of here!"

But they weren't listening.

And then I woke up.

And I flashed on the Marine in Fallujah who had shot the wounded terrorist who was playing possum.

And I didn't go back to sleep for a very long time.

Comments

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Did that wounded insurgent have a weapon, though?

That being said, there are mitigating circumstances. In a war zone, given those surrounding circumstances, I would probably have done the same thing. That's my general philosophy in a fight - I fight to win, and if the stakes are high enough, in the heat of it, I would have no qualms kicking a guy when he's down or making sure he doesn't get up again.

I lean towards Kerry's view on this, the one that he stated before the Senate while giving his summary of the Winter Soldier Investigation, and that he's given in interviews since then. The atrocities that happen here - like in Vietnam - are not reflections of the soldiers. They are human. They are reflections of the policies that have placed these brave young men and women in the position where they believe that they have to do these horrible things.

The question then is this: is what we are asking them to do worth the cost - physical, psychological, whatever - that it exacts from them? Do we have to ask them to do these things.

Your opinion, as does mine, may vary.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

And I flashed on the Marine in Fallujah who had shot the wounded terrorist who was playing possum.

So, is this a hypothetical, or is this the spin that certain news outlets are putting on the story of the Marine who shot the wounded Iraqi on camera a few days ago? Every news story I've encountered has clearly said that the Iraqi in question was unarmed and implied that he was helpless.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

It's unclear. On the video of the shooting, a Marine is heard saying, "He's fucking faking he's dead. He's faking he's fucking dead." Then the Marine comes in, shoots the insurgent, and another Marine says, "Well, he's dead now."

[billroper]

I understand from some -- possibly inaccurate -- source that I've read that this group of Marines had encountered an insurgent in a similar position the day before. That insurgent had a hidden grenade and took at least one Marine with him. (But I don't have the citation in front of me and am unwilling to vouch for the truth of my memory without being able to check it again.)

I'd say that the Marines probably couldn't have known whether he had a weapon or not, but did believe that the wounded man was attempting to deceive them as opposed to trying to surrender to them.

[billroper]

The reports I've seen indicated that they thought he was playing dead.

My nightmare wasn't hypothetical. Apparently, just my brain trying to work some things out...

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

To be honest? And just between you and me, of course. In a court, you would definitely try to argue (assuming that your argument that the building had not been secured, therefore the deceased was not a prisoner at the time and thus not covered under the Geneva Convention had failed) that you believed the guy was a threat. But confidentially?

I wouldn't even go so far as to say that they believed it. As long as I believed there was a possibility that the guy was faking it - and I'm reminded of kids with grenades in Vietnam, and knowing that this is a culture that has no problem with suicide bombing, I'd just make sure.

If he had been properly restrained, it'd be a different story.

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

The cnn article mentions a Marine being killed by a booby trapped body. Dunno if that's the incident being thought of or not.

[patoadam]

And I flashed on the Marine in Fallujah who had shot the wounded terrorist who was playing possum.

Suggest you see ,
this Yahoo News article, which touches on this and related incidents.

[(Anonymous)]

And I flashed on the Marine in Fallujah who had shot the wounded terrorist who was playing possum.

The cameraman who video'd the shooting says on his website (http://www.kevinsites.net/) (11/21/04)

Immediately after going in, I see the same black plastic body bags spread around the mosque. The dead from the day before. But more surprising, I see the same five men that were wounded from Friday as well. It appears that one of them is now dead and three are bleeding to death from new gunshot wounds. The fifth is partially covered by a blanket and is in the same place and condition he was in on Friday, near a column. He has not been shot again. I look closely at both the dead and the wounded. There don't appear to be any weapons anywhere.

"These were the same wounded from yesterday," I say to the lieutenant. He takes a look around and goes outside the mosque with his radio operator to call in the situation to Battalion Forward HQ.

Then the sound byte y'all are spinning

"He's fucking faking he's dead -- he's faking he's fucking dead."

Through my viewfinder I can see him raise the muzzle of his rifle in the direction of the wounded Iraqi. There are no sudden movements, no reaching or lunging.

However, the Marine could legitimately believe the man poses some kind of danger. Maybe he's going to cover him while another Marine searches for weapons.

Instead, he pulls the trigger. There is a small splatter against the back wall and the man's leg slumps down.

"Well he's dead now," says another Marine in the background.

Rules of engagement? Geneva Conventions? Neh! War is just like Doom