Were the American POWS executed?

IN an article I read it said that the head wounds on the bodies looked like an execution. Yet that avenue of thought is totally absent from the mainstream media now.

Yet if the marines are aware of it it must be comon knowledge in Iraq, in that case the media is not saying anything to protect the families of the POWS I think...

Just found this ... the only article to mention it...

www.nypost.com...
By VINCE MORRIS

March 25, 2003 -- Reporting from a Marine helicopter base in the Kuwaiti desert

THE Marines at this chopper base near the Iraqi border are
seething with rage and talking revenge over the treatment of American POWs - paraded on TV and some possibly executed.

"OK, they want to play that way. We can play that way," vowed one enraged pilot.

Marine after Marine had the same message - many of them warning that there would be "no second chances for those Iraqis now."

Virtually every conversation here touched on the POW's treatment and possible executions yesterday. It was discussed on chow lines, in the bomb shelters, outside the latrines.

Robert "Doc" Davenport, a Marine medic trained to both save people and kill them, was among those struggling to digest the appalling news.

"It makes it harder to do my job," he said, explaining he'll now think twice about dressing the wounds of injured Iraqis.

"If we run across one of them and he needs my help, it will be harder for me to do it," he added.

Many Marines on this desert base - affectionately known as "Snakepit" - said they believe they were sent to Iraq not to hurt people, but to free them from Saddam Hussein's ruthless grip.

"We want to help these people and look what they're doing to us," said more than one shocked Marine.

"What we should do is go in there and kill every last soul," growled Sgt. Mike Brady.

"If they realize that we are going to kill them like that, they'll be like 'OK, OK, we surrender,' " said the 28-year-old Texas native.

Brady, who mans the twin 50-caliber machineguns aboard a Sea Stallion chopper, said he'll be much more wary now when he's flying over Iraqi positions.

He'll no longer give enemy soldiers the benefit of the doubt when they start waving white flags.

"I'm going to be a lot quicker to pull that trigger if I think they're up to something," he said.

During an air raid yesterday - when everyone rushed into the bomb shelters with their gas masks and chemical and biological gear - one Marine's muffled swearing was heard above the din.

Repeating the sneering nickname used for Saddam Hussein, he kept saying, " 'So damn' insane, 'so damn' insane. I'm going to come up there myself and kill you."

Of course, not everyone on the base is calling for blood - yet.

Cpl. Joseph Michinki said he's not convinced the executions actually took place.

"They can fake all kinds of things with video," noted Michinki, 21, of Georgia.

"But if that really was Americans being killed, I'd be pretty pissed," he added.

[Edited on 25-3-2003 by Netchicken]

have also pointed out this observation, and they do indeed look like execution style wounds, not combat-related... So far, there hasn't been much "proof" of this, just inference, but if you were doubting that the interviews were violating the Geneva Convention, there certainly is no defense for executing POWs...

I only saw 1 dead soldier with a bullet wound in the forehead.I think to call him a dead PoW is actually assuming he was alive when captured.There are at least two other alternatives.1/He was shot in the forehead in battle.I know many may find this hard to believe but it is possible and statistically should happen regularly.2/He was shot in the forehead after he was already dead.He appears to have another wound and perhaps an Iraqi aproached him after he was dead and shot him again.I t does happen.

The PoW's and the dead were together I imagine that those who survived know what happened.I have no doubt they will be released and we will know the truth of what happened in time.

My gut feeling is that they were executed....
I also think this will come back and haunt the Iraqis.I suspect Iraqis that are trying to surrender will be shot.
I was wondering when something like was going to happen.It happens in all wars.

My gut feeling is you are right.However wait and see

Well, its a war.. Things like these happen..

right about the anger, imagine the motivator for the marines if they believed that they would be executed if captured, or that their friends had been shot. Who cares about taking prisoners in that situation?

Maybe thats why Iraq was adement that they were treating the prisoners well.

If the american people believed that pows were being shot it would really turn the war into a bloodbath.

From what I have seen these soldiers were executed specifically because of the way the wound looks.

Also the soldiers who were alive a spoke did so for a reason related to how they were being treated. Clearly a reason for this is fear of execution made clear by observing one of there own being executed.

The training that American troops go through is very specific about how to deal with a non-combatant. Its apparent that during the early stages of this war the level of response was specific, to regarding Iraqis prepared to surrender in the most non-aggressive fashion possible. As a reuslt of these events that
Level of response has in all probability been upgraded.

Things like this does happen in war as a reuslt there are procedures to be followed, despite the response prepared at another thread there are rules in war.