http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5ixSIGWmZdrBw4WckWyDfmvIsD3Sw
During a subsequent search of the house, Mendoza said he received an order from another Marine, Lance Corporal Stephen Tatum, to shoot seven women and children he had found in a rear bedroom.
"When I opened the door there was just women and kids, two adults were lying down on the bed and there were three children on the bed ... two more were behind the bed," Mendoza said.
"I looked at them for a few seconds. Just enough to know they were not presenting a threat ... they looked scared."
After leaving the room Mendoza told Tatum what he had found.
"I told him there were women and kids inside there. He said 'Well, shoot them,'" Mendoza told prosecutor Lieutenant Colonel Sean Sullivan.
"And what did you say to him?" Sullivan asked.
"I said 'But they're just women and children.' He didn't say nothing."
Mendoza said he returned to a position at the front of the house and heard a door open behind him followed by a loud noise. Returning later that afternoon to retrieve bodies, Mendoza said he found a room full of corpses.
2007-09-01 14:39:50 · 7 answers · asked by master apple 2 in Politics & Government ➔ Politics
How can we get Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld tried in the Hague?
2007-09-01 14:40:09 · update #1
It's quite likely a war crime as defined by federal statute -- 18 USC 2441 -- however, there are affirmative defenses that can be raised, and extenuating circumstances that could affect whether these soldiers are found guilty or not.
The International Criminal Court in the Hague is not something the US has agreed to participate in -- so some country would need to kidnap Bush, Cheney or Rumsfeld and take them there by force -- somehow, I don't see that happening.
Bush and Rumsfeld have violated federal war crimes statutes, as confirmed by the US Supreme Court (see Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld) -- however, they are unlikely to be prosecuted because Bush has maneuvered amnesty for himself and his buddies.
2007-09-01 14:48:42 · answer #1 · answered by coragryph 7 · 4⤊ 3⤋
If this is found in the course of the court martial to be true, then yes it's a crime. No doubt about it. But I'm sorry. I didn't see anywhere in the article where it said that Bush, Cheney, or Rums field were out on that patrol with the Marines. Did I misread it? Was it them that gave the order? Did they toss the grenade in the room?
2007-09-01 15:05:01 · answer #2 · answered by Rick 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
To shoot Seven women and children is surely an atrocity, and very likely a war crime. Those who live by murder will die by murder, only they will die many more times than once.
2007-09-01 14:54:51 · answer #3 · answered by Son of David 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
All military personnel are trained to know difference between killing an enemy combatant, and murder of civilians. Anyone who perpetrates this kind of action is guilty of a crime anyone who follows an order they know to be illegal is also guilty of a crime.
2007-09-01 14:53:21 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
do you know what a war crime is? Are you this stupid and how far left hate do you have for a guy you never meat.
2007-09-01 15:52:09 · answer #5 · answered by Jeremy P 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because Bush, Cheney, Rice, etc. DID NOT SHOOT THEM!
2007-09-01 14:43:48 · answer #6 · answered by Taylor G 4 · 5⤊ 2⤋
Yes.
Send them to the gallows.
2007-09-01 15:14:13 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋