No Charges In Unarmed Iraqi Death (re:Fallujah video)

[Rose Siding]

(CBS) It was a striking -- some said chilling -- moment in the battle for Iraq, captured on videotape: a wounded, un-armed Iraqi, shot to death by a U.S. Marine.

CBS News has learned that military investigators conclude there is not enough evidence to formally charge that Marine.

As CBS News Correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports, it happened during the bloody fight for Fallujah last fall. The Marines were engaged in bitter house-to-house combat with dug-in enemy fighters....
...
The insurgents, it turned out, were unarmed -- but investigators say the Iraqi the Marine thought he saw moving could have been going for a weapon. At the very least, Navy legal experts believe the situation is ambiguous enough that no prosecutor could get a conviction.

The original video added to popular anger over the Fallujah crackdown. Many Iraqis felt Fallujah's unarmed civilians bore the brunt of the U.S. campaign.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/02/23/eveningnews/main676101.shtml

[peacebird]

1. a total miscarrage of justice....

"Many Iraqis felt Fallujah's unarmed civilians bore the brunt of the U.S. campaign. "

no shit. while I feel for the Marine his fear doesn't justify lethal force against a seriously wounded man

[FreakinDJ]

2. I saw the video

It was a wanten murder with a complete disregard for human life

look what the chimp has reduced america to

[enigami]

3. I disagree

As a former Marine, I just have to say that I am glad that he was not charged. No one here can know what that Marine saw/thought he saw at the time and the video was not conclusive. But anyone who has been in combat can tell by his voice he was genuinely scared.

Two irrefutable facts about combat.

1. unarmed civilians ALWAYS bear the brunt of any combat

2. seriously wounded combatants are still seriously dangerous