There is a reason why the British Army thinks that US Marines a bunch trigger happy xenophobic psychopaths with no empathy for the citizens of the country they have invaded.
Don't believe that Marines are percieved like that?
Read Coalition divided over battle for hearts and minds. This was back in 2003!
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,926957,00.html
Also, Don't forget Fallujah
This was a siege and massacre of the inhabitants of a city in Iraq. This one was conducted by thousands of troops under command, so of course it must be OK.
Guardian Unlimited Special Report on the Falluja siege and massacre and murder.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1638829,00.html
Here are a few snippets (each paragraphs is a sperate snip - see the link for the full article)
US-led occupying forces launched a devastating assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja. The mood was set by Lt Col Gary Brandl: "The enemy has got a face. He's called Satan. He's in Falluja. And we're going to destroy him."
The assault was preceded by eight weeks of aerial bombardment. US troops cut off the city's water, power and food supplies, condemned as a violation of the Geneva convention by a UN special rapporteur, who accused occupying forces of "using hunger and deprivation of water as a weapon of war against the civilian population".
As the siege tightened, the Red Cross, Red Crescent and the media were kept out, while males between the ages of 15 and 55 were kept in.
US sources claimed between 600 and 6,000 insurgents were holed up inside the city - which means that the vast majority of the remaining inhabitants were non-combatants.
The city's main hospital was selected as the first target, the New York Times reported, "because the US military believed it was the source of rumours about heavy casualties".
"An AP photographer described US helicopters killing a family of five trying to ford a river to safety."
"There were American snipers on top of the hospital shooting everyone. With no medical supplies, people died from their wounds. Everyone in the street was a target for the Americans."
"The US also deployed incendiary weapons, including white phosphorous. "Usually we keep the gloves on," Captain Erik Krivda said, but "for this operation, we took the gloves off"."
"The US claims that 2,000 died, most of them fighters. Other sources disagree. When medical teams arrived in January they collected more than 700 bodies in only one third of the city."
Iraqi NGOs and medical workers estimate between 4,000 and 6,000 dead, mostly civilians - a proportionately higher death rate than in Coventry and London during the blitz.
Like Jallianwallah Bagh, Guernica, My Lai, Halabja and Grozny, Falluja is a place name that has become a symbol of unconscionable brutality. As the war in Iraq claims more lives, we need to ensure that this atrocity - so recent, so easily erased from public memory - is recognised as an example of the barbarism of nations that call themselves civilised.Think of this next time you see an American movie glorifying the good 'ol USMC.
Better still, watch Full Metal Jacket.
