Marine says urinated on dead Iraqi at Haditha

[Barrett808]

Source: Reuters

Marine says urinated on dead Iraqi at Haditha
By Marty Graham

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif., May 9 (Reuters) - Angered that a beloved member of his squad had been killed in an explosion, a U.S. Marine urinated on one of the 24 dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit in Haditha, the Marine testified on Wednesday.

Sgt. Sanick Dela Cruz, who has immunity from prosecution after murder charges against him were dismissed, also said he watched his squad leader shoot down five Iraqi civilians who were trying to surrender.

In dramatic testimony in a pretrial hearing for one of the seven Marines charged in the Nov. 2005 Haditha killings and alleged cover-up, Dela Cruz described his bitterness after a roadside bomb ripped Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas, known as T.J., into two bloody pieces.

"I know it was a bad thing what I've done, but I done it because I was angry T.J. was dead and I pissed on one Iraqi's head," said an unemotional Dela Cruz in a military courtroom in Camp Pendleton, north of San Diego, California.

Dela Cruz also said he watched squad leader Sgt. Frank Wuterich shoot five men whose hands were tied up near a car. Dela Cruz said he also shot the five men as they laid on the ground.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N09334678.htm

[baldguy]

1. Winning hearts & minds I see.

[LynnTheDem]

2. May God forgive him.

The families and friends of those murdered civilians aren't likely to.

I wouldn't.

[NJCher]

3. One of these days I'm going to come completely unglued

over stories like this.

It makes me so angry that my tax dollars are being used to do things like this. It outrages me.

The only saving grace is that bush got the word today from his fellow republicans. Maybe there will be an end to this horror.



Cher

[RL3AO]

4. Its too bad. Not wanting to make excuses.

but the crap these soldiers are going thru fighting for *, you cant entirley blame them for cracking under the stress and pressure.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

5. That's just it...

...these are in all likelihood people who would not, under ordinary circumstances, even contemplate such acts, much less commit them. We place them under extremely stressful conditions and then rather than give them periodic breaks so they can recharge, get some counseling, and hang onto their mental health, we send them back to do multiple back to back tours. NOTHING can justify or excuse what they did, but the fact remains that we place our young military people under extreme and untenable conditions. Such incidents were not uncommon in Viet Nam and it shouldn't surprise that they're not uncommon in Iraq.

[IndianaGreen]

11. You only did one combat tour in Vietnam, unless you wanted to volunteer again

Our troops in Iraq have no such luxury. Considering how fucked up people can get after 12 months in the bush, how much more fucked up can one get after 3, 4, or 5 involuntary combat tours in Iraq?

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

13. Exactly. What we ask of them goes WAY beyond unreasonable...

...it's unconscionable.

[sanskritwarrior]

21. huh?

A standard enlistment for infantry is 2 years. Other MOS's have different enlistment times An 11B Infantryman has 16 weeks of basic training and advanced infantry training,so that's 4 months before he is shipped to a unit, most people also have another 90-120 days before the unit they are assigned to goes into country......So a typical Army infantryman has 7 out of 24 months in his enlistment knocked out before he sets foot inn Iraq. He does 13 months in country (average)so he has 20 out of 24 done when he goes home, also Infantry 11Series MOS's are not stop lossed so he has 4 months before he is out of the service..........unless he reenlists.....

My point is that our troops including myself do have such a luxury. Stop loss effects less than 15% of the Active Army and in mostly non combat critically short MOS's like Linguists and Communications specialists, hardly the people seeing repeated combat. So like I tell people all the time in my 14 years in the Army I have never met a person that has more than 2 combat tours that DID NOT WANT TO BE THERE. Due to training time in the initial phase of an enlistment the 10-15 month time in the rear after a deployment the 90 days before a deployment combined with the 12-15 months in country, if you have done more than 2 tours, you want to be there. I want to be there, that's why I reenlisted in Iraq, that's why I am going for my 3rd tour in December.........My men need me and I won't let them down.

Let's try again....A soldier that joined the Army in May 2002 for a 4 year enlistment in let's say Military Intelligence (96B MOS) goes to Basic training for 8 weeks, then goes to AIT for 20 weeks, After 28 weeks that person takes 2 weeks of leave and then reports to 4 ID. Reception takes one week and inprocessing in your unit takes 2 weeks more, so at this point you have 8 months in the Army, so it is February and you deploy to Iraq in early April 2003, you know have ten months in the Army you do your 12 months in Iraq, and return to Hood. You now have 22 months out of 48 in the Army, you stay in 4ID. Now 4 ID got home in April 2004 and didn't deploy again until 2005, so our young soldier in the Army has completed 36 months in when the next deployment comes up, he or she goes on that deployment and then has completed their 4 years. At this point for a 3rd 4th or 5th tour to take place the soldier must voluntarily reenlist to return to Iraq. Even a stoplossed soldier is only stop lossed for an additional 12 months, so in a 4 year enlistment it is 90% impossible that someone stop lossed would see 3 Iraq tours, there simply isn't time. Combine Army schools like the WLC and BNCOC and ANCOC which stop lossed people actually get priority for and there simply isn't time for someone in the Army to do three tours of duty within a 4 year period or even a 5 year stop lossed period.......Only until someone reenlists can that happen.........

I will battle with every fiber in my being to correct this misperception about Iraq tours. Bash the military in other areas, lord knows we have screwed the football royally in other areas, but the notion that people are being stop lossed for years and years and years and being forced to do 3, 4 or even 5 tours is nonsense and I will snuff out such fantasy..........

[dave_p]

8. But that IS making excuses

... so why do it?

[Raine]

16. War brings out the worst in

otherwise good people and unfortunately for them what they did will live in their heads the rest of their lives. :-(

[donsu]

23. 'cracking' doesn't make people want to urinate on something

that comes from somewhere else.

[TacticalPeek]

6. Rots from the head.

[StarryNite]

17. Yikes! Ted Bundy look alike

[mike_c]

7. pig....

Karma awaits-- one can only hope.

[tabasco]

9. Great discipline there, Marine.

You're a disgrace to the uniform and the entire Nation. :mad:

[RL3AO]

10. And the guy who sent him there is a disgrace to his office and the entire nation.

[tabasco]

12. Sad days for our Nation.

The CINC is a corrupt coward and the military has been populated with criminals, thanks to Rumsfeld's lower standards.

[oneinok]

14. Don't judge the troops

War is hell and hell is full of heroes.

Don't attack the troops unless you have been in combat. If you don't know what it is like to fight for your life day in and day out...then you don't know shit about the horrors the troops are going through.

Leave the troops alone. They already have enough problems.

[rodeodance]

15. These type of acts put ALL the troops at at greater Risk. The fact that

they are in Iraq is not the issue.

[tabasco]

24. I'm an Airborne Ranger with a CIB. I HAVE been in combat.

Two combat tours.

There is NO EXCUSE for intentionally harming non-combatants.

NONE!

This Marine disgraced the service and the country. If you fail to understand that I have sympathy for you.

[Cults4Bush]

25. Yes!!

Short and to the point. Thats all there is to it.

[MissMillie]

18. Gee... can't think why they don't want us around any more....

:shrug:

[tanyev]

19. Ooh! That will teach that dead Iraqi a lesson!

:grr:

[MrSlayer]

20. I can see where someone might do that.

It's kind of funny that the focus is on the urination and not the killing of helpless people. Where is the honor in that?

[donsu]

22. an aside:

some men like to urinate on the woman during sex

male urine as a message

[MrPrax]

26. It's easy to be proud

of something that one knows next to little about...

Found this in the Latin Press:

US Chopper Kills Seven Iraqi Children

Baghdad, May 8 (Prensa Latina) A US helicopter gunship attacked a public school in Diyala Province, killing seven children and wounding another three, police said.

No reason has been given for the attack on the Al Saada Elementary School and the US Army has made no comment.

At least 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the US invasion and occupation started in 2001.

A US military detachment was ambushed by resistance forces in the same area of the province two days ago, with six US servicemen killed after their vehicle hit a homemade bomb.

These deaths brought the number of US soldiers killed in this Arab nation to 3,378 since 2003.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced sending an additional 10 active combat brigades, 35,000 troops, between August and December this year.

Prensa Latina

Brave Men...when confronted by real men fighting for a cause, they retaliate against the children.