Salon.com > Marines

Twitter talks back: Obama’s missed salute

Fri, 24 May 2013 21:51:00 +0000

Boarding his helicopter today, President Obama gave a rather lackluster salute to the attending Marine. The President then realized his mistake or was made aware of it and returned to shake the Marine's hand.

A few Twitter users took this as an invitation to share their opinion:

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Flag that covered Saddam’s face stashed in N.H. safety deposit box

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:45:00 +0000

Ten years ago today we watched as a U.S. Marine hung an American flag on the face of the Saddam Hussein statue in Baghdad’s Firdos Square. The image seemed to make good on the promise that President George W. Bush made standing atop the still-smoldering rubble of the World Trade Center, telling a grieving and revenge-hungry nation, “I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”

Forget the fact that Iraq had no part in 9/11; the United States had planted its flag in the heart of the Middle East, from whence, roughly, the hijackers came. The media dutifully praised the symbolism of the moment as the Saddam statue was then toppled by an oversize military tow truck. On CNN, Bill Hemmer said the scene brought to mind “indelible moments like the fall of the Berlin Wall,” and Wolf Blitzer declared it “the image that sums up the day and, in many ways, the war itself.”

Marine kills two at military base before committing suicide

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 11:24:00 +0000

QUANTICO, Va. (AP) — Officials say a Marine killed a male and female colleague at a base in Virginia before committing suicide.

Base spokesman Lt. Agustin Solivan says it began around 11 p.m. with a shooting that killed one at Marine Base Quantico. The suspect then barricaded himself inside the barracks, prompting a standoff with authorities.

Authorities eventually entered the barracks early Friday and found a second victim dead along with the suspect dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

No names have been released by Solivan says all three of the dead are Marines.

Solivan says the shooting was an isolated incident and authorities are confident there are no other casualties. The base was put on lockdown after the shooting but the lockdown has been lifted.

Marines charged for urinating on Afghan bodies

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:21:00 +0000

Early this year, a graphic video circulated online drew outrage and concern over the behavior of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The clip showed marines urinating on the corpses of Taliban fighters.

Now, two officers featured in the video, staff sergeants Joseph Chamblin and and Edward Deptola, will face court martial. Three other junior sergeants also featured (one behind the camera) will face lesser punishment within the military, but not criminal proceedings like Chamblin and Deptola, reported the A.P.

The video, in which one urinating officer grins and says "have a good day, buddy," to the corpse beneath him, is among a string of perturbing incidents perpetrated by U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The A.P. notes:

American troops have been caught up in controversies over burning Muslim holy books, posing for photos with insurgents' bloodied remains and an alleged massacre of 16 Afghan villagers by a soldier now in U.S. confinement. The Marine Corps said the urination took place during a counterinsurgency operation in the Musa Qala district of Helmand province on July 27, 2011.