Marines Asked to Disarm Before Leon Panetta Speech; ‘Somebody Got Itchy’
March 14th, 2012Via: MSNBC:
In a highly unusual move, around 200 U.S. Marines were asked to leave their weapons outside the tent where U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was set to speak during his trip to Afghanistan on Wednesday.
Although the military said the order was not given in response to Sunday’s shooting of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by an American soldier, it possibly underlined how high tensions were running after the incident.
“You’ve got one of the most important people in the world in the room,” Major General Mark Gurganus told reporters at Camp Leatherneck, dismissing concerns related to the shooting. “This is not a big deal.”
He said he had given the order because the two dozen Afghan soldiers also there were unarmed and he did not want to treat them differently.
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According to reporters at Camp Leatherneck, the Marines were waiting to hear Panetta’s speech when they were abruptly told by their commander to get up, leave their weapons, including M16 and M-4 automatic rifles and 9 mm pistols, outside and return unarmed.
“All I know is I was told to get the weapons out,” Sergeant Major Brandon Hall told The New York Times. Asked why, he replied, “Somebody got itchy, that’s all I’ve got to say. Somebody got itchy; we just adjust.”
More: First Time Marines Disarmed During an Address by Their Own Secretary of Defense
We have now reached the point where Dr. Frankenstein is afraid of the monster he himself created.
It is an important milestone that American troops have begun to see that they are viewed with fear, mistrust and contempt by the very leadership which indoctrinated them and sent them into the killing fields.