An active-duty Marine shot and killed two fellow Marines at the Corps Base Quantico in Virginia before committing suicide early Friday. While no motive is known or publicly released, it is known that hidden wounds of U.S. military aggression and violent human rights abuses against innocent people link to 18 suicides daily among veterans and suicides kill more American troops than war.
The Quantico shooter and two victims were each identified as active duty Marines. Their names were not released until families are notified.
Sgt. Christopher Zahn toled Fox News that authorities could yet speculate a motive for the killings.
MyFoxDC.com reported that authorities believe the suspect was a staff member at the officer candidate school on the base.
Quantico, notorious for its torture of Pfc. Bradley Manning, is approximately 40 miles south of Washington D.C.
"At the time, I thought this can’t be happening. I sent a letter the day before to the corporate CEO of the company I was working for and said I will not be in tomorrow. People will be dying and I will be in the streets opposing the war," wrote Viet Nam Veteran Dan Shea on Tuesday, the 10th year of war on Iraq. "If this means I’m fired, then so be it. I will not, cannot, act as if this is just like any other day."
Shea writes, "Choose the military and you will get three meals a day, a roof over your head and the spoils of war will be yours -- sex (rape if you like, a weapon war these days) drugs, money and most of all the ability of the gods’ to hold life and death in your hands. They don’t tell you that if you survive, it comes with a price."
He also explains:
Ten years ago, you were lied to and those who lied made a profit through the Military Industrial Complex that has its tentacles in every fiber of our economy. It is a cancer that will eventually kill everything on this planet because it has no conscience, no concern for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Our very economy depends on it. The war on terrorism is a sham, a sleight of hand, an invisible hand that reaches into your pockets and steals your children’s future. You have indentured you daughters and sons to work off an endless debt servicing the masters’ killing machine. The country you swore to protect has been swindled as millions lay dead, dying, starving or in ruin.
The dead and dying inlcude men and women on U.S. soil.
The Quantico Marine killing is only three days after Marines killed seven of their own at a training in Nevada.
A commenter wrote about that tragedy, "Someone was definitely slacking off. If the lot numbers on that ammunition which was being used for training purposes had been suspended, then someone will probably lose a lot more that rank and pay on this one."
AP reported Thursday "The bodies of the seven Marines killed in a mortar blast during a training session have quietly been flown out of Nevada on a C-17 military transport plane." (Author emphasis)
At Quantico, authorities entered the barracks where the suspect barricaded himself early Friday after allegedly killing one Marine. They found the suspect dead along with another victim.
Only days after the United Nations issued an official and rare criticism of the U.S. Obama administration for its human rights violations of Army Private Bradley Manning, the American soldier WikiLeaks source held in a military prison at the Quantico Marine Base, where he was tortured, was moved.
Career peace and justice advocate and head of Voters for Peace Kevin Zeese then stated, "This could be a major victory to have him removed from Quantico where the Marine authority has shown that it is unable to treat Manning appropriately and has continued to mistreat him."
When a Brig psychiatrist was advised of there being no mental health justification for the decision to hold Manning in solitary confinement, a senior Quantico official responded with a statement heard and reported by countless targeted individuals: “We will do whatever we want to do.”
Eighteen American veterans per day die from hidden wounds of war that result in suicide.
Comments