Mortuary Unit in Iraq Trying on Marines

Placebo

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Mon Dec-27-04 04:00 PM
Original message

Mortuary Unit in Iraq Trying on Marines

When U.S. servicemen and insurgents die in Fallujah, the bodies are brought back to camp and laid on a concrete floor under a tent hidden behind blast walls topped with concertina wire. The sign outside says: "Do Not Enter."

Five men check the corpses and put them in refrigerators. Within 72 hours, the slain American will arrive at Delaware's Dover Air Force Base in a flag-draped coffin, while the Iraqi will be buried in a plot outside Fallujah facing Mecca.

This is the work of Mortuary Affairs, the Marine unit that catalogues the remains of American servicemen who die in combat, referred to as angels, as well as the Iraqi guerrillas they fight and civilian victims. These Marines must cope with one of the most psychologically punishing but unavoidable tasks of war.

They are shunned by their peers because of a superstition that contact with them brings bad luck. Yet some don't want to go home and leave their fellow Marines who are among the few who have witnessed the same horrors. They must try to stay sane even as they are confronted with the effects of gruesome killings by the shrapnel-filled roadside bombs set by insurgents and terrible U.S. firepower.

More...

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_processing_the_dead_1

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merh

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Mon Dec-27-04 04:03 PM
Response to Original message

1. What can I say?

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry::cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

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xultar

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Mon Dec-27-04 04:09 PM
Response to Reply #1

4. DITTO! n/t

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Democracy Died 2004

(366 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Mon Dec-27-04 04:05 PM
Response to Original message

2. Every warmonger

should have to serve this duty for at least a week or 10 bodies whichever comes first. Fuck * Fuck war

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jmowreader

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Mon Dec-27-04 04:09 PM
Response to Original message

3. This is one of the hardest jobs in the Army

or the Navy, the Air Force or the Marines.

I've met military mortuary people. They don't make friends of soldiers--on purpose; they don't want to face the task of burying one of their friends. Best to stay detached. Best to not know anyone.

Still, it's not THE hardest job in the Army. That award goes to the Survivor Assistance Officers--the officers and NCOs who are tasked with knocking on doors and delivering the bad news.

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DELUSIONAL

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Mon Dec-27-04 04:30 PM
Response to Original message

5. Notice the LIE?

When U.S. servicemen and insurgents die in Fallujah. . .

How is it that we are seeing photos of bodies of Iraqis left to rot in streets and homes?

This smacks of pure military propaganda -- tugs at heart strings. While ignoring the facts that these same soldiers are responsible for the genocide. Families in America will be able to grieve and bury their dead -- but not very many of the Iraqi victims families will be able to bury their dead and grieve.

Before the slaughter in Fallujah these same soldiers prepared by reenacting Ben Hur. Seems like the soldiers wanted blood and guts and that's just what they got -- but I expect that they didn't expect that it would be THEIR blood and guts.

Gotta call it like I see it -- and this is military propaganda. This is just plain sick propaganda. Meanwhile the bodies are still rotting in Fallujah.

bushie is responsible for these deaths -- they are all on his head and happened on his watch.

Genocide and war crimes. . .

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jayfish

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Mon Dec-27-04 09:34 PM
Response to Reply #5

10. Yes But, If It Is True...

then it exposes a different lie. The lie being that we do not know how many Iraqis we have killed.

Jay

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Sara Beverley

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Mon Dec-27-04 09:34 PM
Response to Reply #5

11. Can't argue with your statements.

Wish I could.

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Placebo

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Mon Dec-27-04 08:32 PM
Response to Original message

6. kick

:kick:

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Bouncy Ball

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Mon Dec-27-04 08:36 PM
Response to Original message

7. Notice this...

"American servicemen who die in combat, referred to as angels, as well as the Iraqi guerrillas they fight and civilian victims."

What are the civilian victims known as? Just "unlucky?"

:cry:

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Placebo

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Mon Dec-27-04 08:49 PM
Response to Reply #7

9. Apparently.

:grr:

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Just Me

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Mon Dec-27-04 08:46 PM
Response to Original message

8. 'wonder if they watch Faux News. 'wonder if they get angry.

'wonder if they are able to feel anything, anymore.

'wonder if they stopped asking basic human questions and just,...exist,...witness life passing by.

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