Cpl. Saul H. Lopezromo testified Saturday at the murder trial of Cpl. Trent D. Thomas."We were told to crank up the violence level," said Lopezromo, testifying for the defense.
When a juror asked for further explanation, Lopezromo said: "We beat people, sir."
But that didn't bother corporal Lopezromo.
Lopezromo said a procedure called "dead-checking" was routine. If Marines entered a house where a man was wounded, instead of checking to see whether he needed medical aid, they shot him to make sure he was dead, he testified."If somebody is worth shooting once, they're worth shooting twice," he said.
[...]
Within weeks of allegedly being scolded, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman went out late one night to find and kill a suspected insurgent in the village of Hamandiya near the Abu Ghraib prison.
[...]
Lopezromo said the suspected insurgent was known to his neighbors as the "prince of jihad," and had been arrested several times and later released by the Iraqi legal system.
Unable to find him, the Marines and corpsman dragged another man from his house, fatally shot him, and then planted an AK-47 assault rifle near the body to make it appear he had been killed in a shootout, according to court testimony.
[...]
Lopezromo, who was not part of the squad on its late-night mission, said he saw nothing wrong [...]
"I don't see it as an execution, sir," he told the judge. "I see it as killing the enemy."
He said Marines consider all Iraqi men part of the insurgency.
Perhaps this is a good time to read (or re-read) an open letter to enlistees from Stan Goff, an ex-Special Forces Ranger who had tours in Viet Nam, Latin America, and Haiti.
Home's a long, long way from us
Feel the dirty winds blowin'
Devils and dust
I've got my finger on the trigger
Tonight faith just ain't enough
And I look inside my heart
There's just devils and dust
But I've got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
But if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear is a dangerous thing
It'll turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God-filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
Bruce Springstein
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