Sailor's Testimony: Marine Joked Using Iraqi's Body

[Hissyspit]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MARINES_IRAQ_SHOOTING?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

Feb 15, 9:33 PM EST
Sailor: Marine Joked Using Iraqi's Body

By THOMAS WATKINS
Associated Press Writer

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. (AP) -- A Marine lance corporal cracked jokes and lifted the lifeless hand of an Iraqi civilian whom his squad had just shot, slapping it across the dead man's face, a sailor testified Thursday.

The government called Seaman Recruit Melson J. Bacos as a witness in the sentencing hearing for Lance Cpl. Robert Pennington, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to kidnapping and conspiracy.

The men were part of an eight-member squad accused of kidnapping and murdering Hashim Ibrahim Awad last April in the Iraqi town of Hamdania.

"When he was helping put the dead body in the body bag, I saw him play with one of his arms," Bacos testified. "He took his hand and ... made Mr. Awad hit himself." Bacos testified that Pennington said to the dead man, "Quit hitting yourself."

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[youngdem]

1. War makes pigs of men, and shit of pigs.

[MrSlayer]

2. Warzone humor.

Happens all the time. War is a very ugly thing.

[countmyvote4real]

5. It especially doesn't help when the war isn't truly a defense of your country.

I don't question the patriotism that signed on to the lies of 9/11, but Chimp in Chief declared the mission was accomplished months after the invasion. Our troops have been there almost four years now, doing what? Securing profits for big oil and defense contractors. At some point they must realize that they are meaningless pawns in the war profiteers' game.

That's no excuse for their moral break down. I fault the leadership and take that all the way to the top. It might be a slight explanation, but your headline does cut it to the quick.

We must get the hell out of there.

[sanskritwarrior]

6. You said it brother......

warzone humor is perverse......I think I've cracked a joke or two in my time that seems quite obtuse in retrospect......

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. The pursuit of democracy can make people do strange things I guess.

[NJCher]

4. what's horrific about this

Is that he probably felt it was A-OK to do something like this. Just another dead body.

This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night--that bush is using our tax dollars to do this to people. We demonstrate in the hundreds of thousands, we write letters to our representatives, we put up signs on our lawns and bumper stickes on our cars--and we have been doing this for years. Some of us were even out there trying to stop it before it started.

Yet it still happened. This, VietNam, and what we've done to the earth are the major disappointments of my lifetime.



Cher

[KansDem]

7. Man, it's bad enough we murder them...

But to mock them afterwards is just plain sick.