US Whitewashes Friendly Fire Killing Marines
James Chamblee
http://www.traprockpeace.org/du_friendly_fire_add.html
The US Central Command has issued its investigative report on the attack on
Marines at An Nasiriyah by 2 A-10 Warthogs on March 23, 2003.
Initially, Americans were told, and US media reported, that the Marines died
as a result of Iraqi's pretending to surrender, and then firing on the
Marines. It was then revealed that two A-10's had attacked the Marines
during the worst so-called 'friendly' fire incident of the war.
18 Marines died and 17 were wounded during the engagement with Iraqi forces
and the US A-10's. The A-10's fired Maverick missiles at vehicles and
strafed vehicles and US Marines on the ground with 30 mm 'depleted' uranium
rounds. One Marine witnessed 9 strafing runs.
On March 19, 2004, NPR had broadcast accounts by Marines given shortly after
the battle to Marine historians. Marines described multiple deaths from the
A-10's; a sergeant said that most of the Americans deaths were caused by
the A-10's. Col. Reed Bonadonna, Marine historian, described the devastating
effect of the 30 mm DU rounds and called for a legitimate investigation of
the incident:
"I think that most of the Marines felt that with the kind of price that is
being paid by this war, by a lot of people, and with the stakes being what
they are, that falling back on some kind of no comment or bland, evasive or
euphemistic language is really inadequate to the situation. That this kind
of sacrifice, only the truth is good enough. That to try to protect
somebody's nasty little career or to try to throw a gloss over this as if it
didn't exist. The proper function of military history is to instruct people
so we do it better next time, save people's lives." (transcription from NPR
broadcast.)
Yet, the Central Command report did not confirm a single death caused by the
A-10's. It found that the cause of death for 10 Marines was
"indeterminable."
Of Marines wounded, the Central Command said in its press release:
"Of the 17 wounded, only one was conclusively determined to have been hit by
friendly fire." Further, that "three Marines were wounded while inside
vehicles that received both friendly and hostile fire, and the exact
sequence and source of their injuries could not be determined."
It is unbelievable that the military could not confirm if these Marines were
injured by an A-10's strafing, as DU is radioactive.
There was barely a mention of 'depleted' uranium in the report itself, even
though it played a key role. It was mentioned in connection marking vehicles
that had been hit by the 30 mm rounds as radioactive.
It seems clear that the military has minimized this deadly incident. Why?
http://www.traprockpeace.org/du_friendly_fire_add.html covers this
controversy.
It also provides exclusive commentary by Dr. Doug Rokke (retired Major
USAR); Tedd Weyman, Iraq Field Team leader for the Uranium Medical Research
Center, and Ross Wilcock, MD., as well as links to the NPR and Central
Command original resources and media accounts.
Charles Jenks, attorney at law
President of the Core Group
Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-1633; Fax 413-773-7507
cha...@mtdata.com
http://traprockpeace.org