Rant - The Fog Lights Of War

If you haven’t been in the military, you can’t understand the “fog of war.” Those of us on the left have probably heard this specious canard a bit more than we would have liked. This led to a bitter argument today. The subject, of course, was from my earlier post on Haditha - the cold-blooded murder of innocent Iraqi civilians. The situation was that a group of marines had just lost a soldier to an IED. To avenge that death, it was my position that the marines followed their training to a T & killed them some sand niggers. The other argument was that the fog of war overtook the marines & that they were really upset & stressed & I should not be angry with the murderous marines, but with their leaders. Well, sure. Here's what the armed forces claimed:

"According to the military, 15 Iraqi civilians died in the incident as a result of an explosion caused by an insurgent bomb, what the military calls an IED, or Improvised Explosive Device, that had also killed one of the Marines. Other reports charged that the U.S. Marines on the scene shot the civilians to retaliate for losing their comrade."

Here's what Congressman Murtha said in the same article linked to above:

"There was no firefight," he said. "There was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops over-reacted because of the pressure on them. And they killed innocent civilians in cold blood.

"Congressman Murtha also said the civilian death toll was 24, not 15 as the Marines first reported. Murtha is a former Marine, a respected expert on defense issues and a strong supporter of the military. Six months ago he called for the Bush administration to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq quickly."

I would disagree with Murtha that the marines "over-reacted". These marines had a choice & had training & they chose & followed their training, but they did not do the right thing. The analogy the other was making was that of a medic involved in an overwhelming situation & having to basically let one person die in order to save many others. It was said that in those situations, highly emotional & stressful, you relied on your training to get you through. I agreed completely. Can you see where this is going? I was agreeing with that argument. I don’t consider myself necessarily paranoid, but I believe that these marine criminals did rely on their training in a stressful situation & the result was mass murder. You know, the breakdown of the individual for the greater good of the group, blah, blah, blah, training. I thought my argument was clear, as was the other side, & I was agreeing. But there was no recognition that I agreed & rather than explain, it was decided to just accuse me of being a dick &there was no reason to talk about it anymore. Lot's of agreeing going nowhere, apparenty. Oh, & of course, that stupid “fog of war” crap was being thrown around the open air, along with the notion that since I wasn’t in the service, I shouldn’t really be saying anything. Oh well.

I’m so sick of this “fog of war” crap I could just puke. The Pat Tillman fiasco comes to mind. As does this little fairy tale.

Her rescue will go down as one of the most stunning pieces of news management yet conceived. It provides a remarkable insight into the real influence of Hollywood producers on the Pentagon's media managers, and has produced a template from which America hopes to present its future wars.

& now more "fog of war":
-here

"Lieut. Colonel Michelle Martin-Hing, spokeswoman for the Multi-National Force-Iraq, told Time the involvement of the ncis does not mean that a crime occurred. And she says the fault for the civilian deaths lies squarely with the insurgents, who "placed noncombatants in the line of fire as the Marines responded to defend themselves."

& here.

"On November 20, U.S. Marines spokesman Captain Jeffrey Pool issued a statement saying that, on the previous day, a roadside bomb had killed 15 civilians and a Marine. In a later gunbattle, U.S. and Iraqi troops had killed eight insurgents, he added."*

*Note: The U.S. military later said this account was wrong.

If you're driving in a fog, you stop.