REPORTING FOR DUTY
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Apr
9
Marine Sgt. Ryan Weemer Aquitted Of Murder
April 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment
A military jury today acquitted a Marine sergeant from Hindsboro, Ill., on charges of murdering an unarmed detainee during battle in Fallujah, Iraq. The jury also acquitted Sgt. Ryan Weemer of dereliction of duty in the November 2004 death, the Associated Press reports.
Sgt Weemer was charged with murder after recounting his participation in the execution of disarmed terrorists during “Operation Phantom Fury,” also known as the battle for Fallujah, while undergoing a lie detector test as a part of his application to the CIA.
In one of the most extraordinary murder cases involving a US soldier to have come out of the Iraq war, Sergeant Ryan Weemer was submitted to a polygraph test and asked about the most serious crime that he had ever committed, as part of his vetting for the new post. He recalled a shooting in Fallujah in November 2004, when US forces stormed the insurgent-held Iraqi city.
“We went into this house, there happened to be four or five guys in the house. We ended up shooting them, we had to,”
What would you do if you were in their situation? You’ve captured a group of terrorists after they have been trying to kill you. You can’t stay where you are, and you can’t take them with you. If you let them go they will pick up the nearest RPG and kill someone else. You know this because they were just doing that to you before they ran out of ammo or were defeated more directly. What do you do?
You can’t possibly answer the question with authority unless you have been in battle, but we ask our soldiers to stare down this choice in the heat of war.
The argument the civilian establishment might want to make is that we shouldn’t assault a city unless we have a system in place to police up the captured enemy. Has war ever worked like that?
