Pathetically, the SD Union Trib is the only paper in the country to cover this. Even the NC Times is asleep at the switch.
Guess we can see why prosecutors and NCIS thugs were so desparate to beat confessions and deals out of these Marines.
They never had a case.
This was major news last year. People were up in arms at our Marines being shackled. You are correct, this is pathetic. They may have killed an insurgent; the question is whether it was sanctioned or not. Is the world, Iraq, and our Marines better off without him? Probably so. When these trials are over, I hope Lt. Gen. Mattis takes this into consideration in his judgement.
I guess the question I’d be asking is how bad does a guy have to be before it’s okay to kill him? If this was Osama, noone would bat an eye. These guys would be heroes. If this guy was a total innocent with a long record of helping out other Iraqis and Americans, not good. If this guy is the cousin of the Prince of Anbar or the Prince of Jihad, Saleh Gowad, what part of that spectrum of punishment (Zero to Life) does it fall under?
My gut says most Americans aren’t too hip on punishing Marines for killing insurgents, sanctioned or not.....and if they get punished, it shouldn’t be excessive. There was no personal motive, here, except get rid of the bad guys and stop the IED’s. Maybe if more of these type of op’s had been sanctioned, we’d have less IED’s today killing our military. But that’s just my two cents.