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The War Profiteers - War Crimes,
Kidnappings, Torture and Big Money |
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May 18th,
2007 - Commandant: Marines Must Focus on Values |
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Commandant: Marines Must
Focus on Values By Lolita C. Baldor Associated Press May 18, 2007 1:01 AM Washington - The Marine
Corps commandant is admonishing his officers to stress a need for ethics on
the battlefield after a survey found Marines a bit more likely than soldiers
to condone torture to gain information or save a comrade's life. Gen. James T. Conway told
Pentagon reporters Thursday that he wants to examine whether Marines are more
prone to not follow military rules of engagement. He is telling his officers
to make sure their Marines understand the importance of ethics in the fight. “I was a little bit
disturbed by what I saw because, one, Marines were more likely to do those
things than were soldiers,” he said. “I want to get after that because,
again, those things are things that either incite the population or,
conversely, help to win the fight if you do them right.” Ethics on the battlefield
has been a persistent and troublesome issue for the military during the Iraq
and Afghanistan wars. High profile incidents include the killings of 24
civilians at Haditha by Marines, the rape and killing of a young Iraqi woman
and the slaying of her family by Army soldiers, and the abuse and sexual
humiliation of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison. At the same time, Conway
said an Army commander in Afghanistan was wrong when he issued a public
apology for an incident in March where Marines “killed and wounded innocent
Afghan people.” Conway said Army Col. John
Nicholson “was premature to apologize, in that there is an investigation
ongoing to determine what happened. If the investigation should determine
that there are charges that should be levied, then there will be a hearing,
perhaps a court martial.” Conway added that the military was not wrong to
make $2,000 payments to the families of those killed. Nicholson this month read to
reporters an apology given to the families for an incident in Nangahar
province that left as many as 19 Afghans dead and 50 injured. An
explosives-rigged minivan crashed into a convoy of Marines. A U.S. military
commander later determined that Marines used excessive force when they fired
back at civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away. On Thursday, Conway sent a
memo to all of his officers directing them to re-emphasize the importance of
values. He said he will hold a “values conference” on Monday with senior
Marine Corps leaders to determine how best to reinforce the message to
Marines at the battlefront. Over time, he said, some
fight training, may have “morphed to more of the physical, more of the
thumping and the slamming” with less emphasis on when to use those skills and
how to control them. “We need to make sure every
Marine understands the importance of ethics as an American trooper, and the
importance of maintaining these core values as we go about a counterinsurgency
fight,” he said, adding that he has directed some changes and improvements in
training to better emphasize ethics. The survey released this
month found that fewer than half of the Marines questioned said they would
report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.
Thirty-nine percent said torture should be allowed to gather information from
an insurgent. In other comments, Conway
said the military has to do a better job telling the people in the U.S. about
the costs of leaving Iraq too soon. He said there is a troubling “disconnect”
between the amount of time the military thinks it will take to stabilize the
country and the amount of patience the public has with the war. Speaking as Congress
continues to press for a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq, Conway declined
to say how many troops will have to stay in Iraq or for how long. But, he said, “I do believe
that there's a certain amount of time that it takes to overcome an
insurgency-type of environment. Historically, it's been somewhere between
nine and 10 years, with various levels of effort.” He said there are still
about 2,000 Marines preparing to head into Iraq. While he said he prefers
that the Marines all serve together in the Anbar province, there is the
possibility they could be used in Baghdad, where the levels of violence have
continued to spike. Conway also said the Marines
are pushing the purchasing regulations right to the edge in an effort to get
as many of the new Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles to the
front lines. The Army and Marines are working to replace many of their
Humvees with the MRAPs, which have a v-shaped hull that can better deflect
explosions. Acting Army Secretary Pete
Geren, in a memo this week to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, said the Army
would anticipate spending up to $20 billion through 2009 to purchase as many
as 17,700 of the armored vehicles. He said the Army has sent 1,300 to the
troops in Iraq, and expects to send an additional 600 by the end of the year. External link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6642136,00.html |