Marine unit ordered out of Afghanistan (actual headline)

[rebel with a cause]

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Fri Mar 23, 9:25 PM ET



Marines accused of shooting and killing civilians after a suicide bombing in Afghanistan are under U.S. investigation, and their entire unit has been ordered to leave the country, officials said Friday.

Army Maj. Gen. Francis H. Kearney III, head of Special Operations Command Central, ordered the unit of about 120 Marines out of Afghanistan and initiated an investigation into the March 4 incident, said Lt. Col. Lou Leto, spokesman at Kearney's command headquarters in Tampa, Fla.

<snip>

In the March 4 incident in Nangahar province, an explosives-rigged minivan crashed into a convoy of Marines that U.S. officials said also came under fire from gunmen. As many as 10 Afghans were killed and 34 wounded as the convoy made an escape. Injured Afghans said the Americans fired on civilian cars and pedestrians as they sped away.

<snip>

For years the Marines resisted creating special operations units, arguing that would run counter to their philosophy of viewing all Marines as elite fighters and not singling out elements as special. But former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pressed them to establish a separate command — the Marine Special Operations Command — to train and equip forces for the multi-service Special Operations Command.

Edited to add link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070324/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/marines_afghanistan_8

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Another thing the military (the marines in particular) can think the bushettes for. They have changed our military forces so much and have crippled our defense altogether, changing them into a special invasion and occupying force.

[kenny blankenship]

1. The Official Disclaimer of Responsibilty: the Marines were operating in a landlocked country

ipso facto they had never been given chain of command authorization to be there in Afghanistan. We are shocked, SHOCKED, that our soldiers have killed people!

[westerebus]

2. Civilians in a crossfire.

It's not easy being green.

[izzie]

3. How would we feel if it was Chinese doing this in Ore?

Both would do just what these two sides did. My problem, I guess, is saying it is OK that the Chinese are in Ore. Even thinking like that makes me a bad Am. in many eyes. I do not know how you beat that thinking. I can find an ancestor that thought the same way about the Brits so etc.