Very first blog entry
I've decided to kick off this blog by dealing with a subject that I've spent a considerable amount of time thinking about, and one that has nothing to do with Go Daddy or the Internet, other than possibly the fact that we are an American company and truly love and care about this great country of ours.

Incident in Fallujah
On November 13, 2004, an embedded reporter captured on video a combat Marine of the Expeditionary Force, 1st Battalion, 3rd Marines Regiment - also known as the 3.1 Devil Dogs – shooting a wounded Iraqi during the battle for Fallujah. The Marine was subsequently brought up on charges by the U.S. Military and is currently awaiting trial. There are many things that bother me about this:

1. The incident happened during the battle for Fallujah, during which our troops were engaged in active, frequent and brutal combat.

2. Just the day before, a Marine in the same unit was killed while attempting to provide assistance to an Iraqi who appeared to be wounded or dead but was rigged with explosives.

3. The Marine in question was himself shot in the face a day earlier, but out of dedication to his unit and our country, refused to be removed from combat. Instead he chose to remain in harm's way and to continue to fight alongside his fellow marines. I can think of no act that exemplifies pure selflessness, bravery and what it means to be a United States Marine, more than this young man's decision to remain with his unit after being wounded.

4. The video was taken by a reporter, Kevin Sites of NBC television, who was embedded with the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. I believe the video, shown out of context, provided a distorted view of the actual circumstances that this young Marine was faced with. After becoming available it was run repeatedly on the Al Jazeera network with anti-American voice-overs. Mr. Site's personal account of the incident can be found at http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs995.

5. We have witnessed a number of innocent people kidnapped and brutally murdered through beheading (I have watched most of these videos and can tell you that they are truly disgusting and are more brutal than one can possibly imagine), yet each and every one of these incidents has received relatively little publicity compared to the video taken by Mr. Sites.

6. The truth is, anyone in an open combat zone is at risk of being shot. Consider that our troops are constantly faced with situations where the insurgents they are up against, are instructed to use any means possible, regardless of how despicable or treacherous, to slaughter our troops. This enemy thinks nothing of using women (even pregnant women), little children, feigning injury, etc. to lure our troops into situations in which they are compromised and become easy prey.

7. We are dealing with the United States Marine Corps in a combat situation. They should not be expected to operate under the same rules and procedures that guide the New York City Police Department. The mission is different. The job is completely different. They are there in Fallujah for one reason and one reason only: to destroy our enemy.

8. Morale amongst our troops is getting low. This is in large part due to the fact that many of our troops have not received the necessary equipment such as armor for their HMMWVs (usually called a Humvee or Hummer). More than that, the prolonged extension of their enlistments, particularly extended combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, has had a decided and negative impact on morale. Imagine what it's like when a young soldier or marine has circled a "short" or "going home" date on a calendar only to have it changed and moved out months beyond what they were expecting. As if this weren't enough, we are now holding them to rules of engagement standards that our enemies find laughable. This will only serve to take low morale and make it even lower.

9. Having embedded reporters (particularly those that are there to solely make a name for themselves, like Mr. Sites, regardless of the cost to others) operate within a combat unit is an unnecessary burden for the combat unit and a bad idea all around. I can only imagine what it might have been like if we'd had those types of reporters with us in Vietnam. While I personally never did anything that I regret while serving in Viet Nam, had there been an embedded reporter within my rifle company, I can only imagine the consequences. I also wonder what the results might have been if we had these types of individuals embedded with our troops during World War II, to say nothing of the Korean Conflict.

10. Our troops are engaged in a conflict where the enemy is beyond ruthless. This enemy thinks nothing of using women and children for shields and as suicide bombers. In early April 2003, two female suicide bombers, pretending to be pregnant, blew up themselves and three U.S. Army Rangers at a checkpoint in western Iraq. During the April 9th 2004 insurgency outside of Baghdad, Iraqi insurgents even used women and children as shields while they fired at a U.S. army convoy.

President Bush has a golden opportunity
All this said, this past month President Bush had a golden opportunity to send a message to our enemies and to the rest of the world. All he had to do was lay out a complete telling of the facts and step up to the plate and issue a Presidential pardon to the Marine involved in the shooting. This would have had a tremendous and positive effect on the morale of our troops. It seemed like such an obvious thing for him to do that I found myself, every morning, expecting to open the newspaper and read that he had done just that.

Why is it only the wrong people receive pardons?
Instead, we see that individuals like Marc Rich receive pardons. His actions were (and still are) certainly questionable, and the fact that he received a pardon has been controversial. Granted, Mr. Rich was pardoned by President Clinton, not President Bush. The point here is that this one time, we can have the President step up and truly do something that will send the right message and make a very positive difference to our brave troops and to the world community.

There has been no pardon.
Sadly, and unfortunately, as we all know, President Bush has issued no such pardon.

What you can do:
If you feel as strongly about this as I do, I urge you to contact the President and request that this Marine be pardoned. Go to
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact or e-mail the President at president@whitehouse.gov.

There is also an online petition that you can review and sign. The last time I checked, the petition had over 300,000 signatures (336,879). I urge you to read the facts and support this young man by signing the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/as123/petition.html

A special message to all Marines:
To all Marines — those bravely serving now and all those who have served — I want to take the occasion of the 229th Birthday of the Marine Corps to say thank you. Click here to see our birthday card to the USMC: http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/usmc.asp