Slandering Private Ryan ? In Fallujah

JEWISH WORLD REVIEW ^ | NOVEMBER 18, 2004 | DAVID D. PERLMUTTER

[CHARLITE]

American warriors of the past knew this. Michael Lee Lanning wrote in his account of "Vietnam, 1969: A Company Commander's Journal" that Viet Cong or North Vietnamese army fighters regularly feigned surrender, incapacitation or death in order to lure GIs into grenade or rifle range. Even the actual dead were booby-trapped. The average GI learned quickly to "shoot and throw grenades at the body" rather than risk enemy treachery. And I have a friend who was a Marine at Iwo Jima. As he put it: "After the second time a Japanese soldier faked being dead only to kill one of us, we started shooting every 'body' we found as a matter of course." No surprise that war historian and analyst James F. Dunnigan estimated that, "Historically 50 percent of those surrendering [in war] do not survive the process."

[ChristianDefender]

WOW IM SO IMPRESSED WITH THIS ARTICLE... THANK YOU...

Kevin Sites and other critics of our brave soldiers are too ignorant about the fact we have the most respectful soldiers in the world...

Onward Christian Soldiers...

[SandRat]

There's a scene in the Movie "The Devil's Brigade" where a German feigns a surrender under a flag of truce and then produces a schmizer automatic assault gun and fatally wounds Canadian SGM Peacock. There is also a similar scene in the movie SGT York where a German prisoner suddenly tosses a grenade after allegedly surrendering killing the guy from the Bronx nicknamed "Pusher" because that is what he did in the New York subways pusher the passengers into the cars so the doors would close. In both case the Luger Heads got sent straight to hell.

[rellimpank]

---and furthermore the censorship during WW2 was such that no picture of any American dead or wounded was published until 1945---

--my source for this is Steven Ambrose--

[tet68]

During the Tet offensive, we were told,
"Men, we believe there is a regiment of North Vietnamese
Regulars outside the perimeter. Now if during the fighting
one of them tries to surrender to you, you WILL shoot him.
Only if the battle is over and all firing ceases, and they
surrender en mass will volunteers go out and disarm them.

I thought,"I ain't in Kansas anymore!"

[airborne]

Too many armchair soldiers in the elite media preacing about something that they know nothing about.

I'd like to see that reporter put down his camera and take point on a house clearing mission.

I gaurantee he comes out with a load in his pants (if he survives).

[rellimpank]

---it was also widely reported after the Malmedy Massacre that "very few Germans were taken prisoner" in that area for some time---

[2Fro]

Your pronounciation is correct,

"Bitte, bitte" is the correct spelling and

for all those in Rio Linda tonight, it means, "Please, please."

[Junior]

The difference between now and WWII is that in the latter the left's favorite fellow, Uncle Joe, was also under assault by the folks we were fighting. The leftists felt it was their patriotic duty (to international communism) to support the fight against the Nazis.

[Steel Wolf]

This is the problem with trying to force the behavior of our GIs into a template - the template is flawed. The first wrong assumption is, that the individual GI has some superhuman reasoning capability, able to detect within a split second that the wounded enemy lying there on the ground really DOESN'T want to take you out with a concealed hand weapon or take you with him in a suicide grenade detonation

That, in a nutshell, is the problem this Marine faces. The rules of engagement are very moral and idealistic, but once you start running into 'fuzzy' scenarios like this, it's very easy to make a real world mistake that won't look good on paper. Or the evening news, for that matter.

[FreedomCalls]

They stole it from "The Longest Day."

[rstevens]

Our Military leaders need to be very cautious in how they deal with this. If they throw this young Marine to the wolves, they will be sending a very strong message to all of the combat types in the military. Many, I suspect, will leave the military instead of being required to fight in such a way as to have every kill questioned.

I am preparing to do what ever is necessary to prevent this Marine from being punished for this incident.

[SandRat]

Not if he's given the same point position as a Chu Hoy he doesn't come out.

[SandRat]

The difference between now and WWII is that in the latter the left's favorite fellow, Uncle Joe, was also under assault by the folks we were fighting. The leftists felt it was their patriotic duty (to international communism) to support the fight against the Nazis.

Of course until the Nazi's attacked "the workers paradise" they were their usual anti-war MoveOn.org, NION, ANSWER, scum. Screaming and protesting that the US shouldn't be the arsenal for Democracy. We must negotiate with Hitler.

[SandRat]

and why the airborne fought so hard at Bastone.

[FreedomCalls]

---it was also widely reported after the Malmedy Massacre that "very few Germans were taken prisoner" in that area for some time---

And at Dachau.

Read this: http://www.scrapbookpages.com/DachauScrapbook/DachauLiberation/SoldiersKilled.html

The photograph above is a still photo, taken by T/4 Arland B. Musser, 163rd Signal Photographic Company, US Seventh Army, on April 29, 1945, the day that the Dachau concentration camp was liberated. It shows 60 Waffen-SS soldiers on the ground, some wounded, some playing dead, and 17 dead, according to Flint Whitlock, historian for the 45th Thunderbird Division, who got this information from Lt. Col. Felix Sparks, commandander of the 3rd Battalion, 157th Infantry Regiment, 45th Division of the US Seventh Army, the first unit to arrive at the Dachau camp. [The knealing soldier is setting up his machine gun prior to shooting the reamining standing SS Guards].

4. At the entrance to the back area of the Dachau prison grounds, four German soldiers surrendered to Lt. William P. Walsh, 0-414901, in command of Company "I", 157th Infantry. These prisoners Lt. Walsh ordered into a box car, where he personally shot them. Pvt. Albert C. Pruitt, 34573708, Company "I"157th Infantry, then climbed into the box car where these Germans were on the floor moaning and apparently still alive, and finished them off with his rifle.

5. After entry into the Dachau Camp area, Lt. Walsh segregated from surrendered prisoners of war those who were identified as SS Troops.

6. Such segregated prisoners of war were marched into a separate enclosure, lined up against the wall and shot down by American troops, who were acting under the orders of Lt. Walsh. A light machine gun, carbines, and either a pistol or a sub-machine gun were used. Seventeen of such prisoners of war were killed, and others were wounded.

7. Lt. Jack Busheyhead, 0-1284822, executive officer of Company "I", participated with Lt. Walsh in this handling of the men and during the course of the shooting personally fired his weapon at these prisoners.

[FreedomCalls]

There's an interesting quote from General Patton buried in the link I gave above:

According to Whitlock, the men of the 45th Infantry Division had been warned about the danger posed by German POWs by General George S. Patton, Jr., the Commander of the US Seventh Army, on June 27, 1943 just before their invasion of Sicily. Whitlock wrote:

"Patton cautioned the men to watch out for dirty tricks when it seemed a group of enemy soldiers wanted to surrender. A favorite tactic, the general said, was for a small group to suddenly drop their weapons and raise their hands or wave a white flag. When unsuspecting Americans moved into the open to take the enemy prisoner, the 'surrendering' troops would hit the dirt and their comrades, lying in wait, would spring up and mow down the exposed Americans. Patton warned the Thunderbirds to be on their guard for this sort of treachery and to show no mercy if the Germans or Italians attempted this trick."

[Nachum]

Ah, I remember the film. It has been a long time.

[airborne]

and why the airborne fought so hard at Bastone.

The 'AIRBORNE' fight hard everywhere!