According to Sen. John Warner (R-Va),
this Michigan Marine
is at fault for his own death, along with the 9 others who were killed Thusday in Fallujah.
"it appears that this group of Marines had collected -- which is always a dangerous thing -- in sort of one location."
Well, Senator, here is a little more about the Marine you think was so stupid.
Watson was on his second tour of duty in Iraq, having enlisted as a high-school senior and shipped out within three weeks of graduating in 2003, said his mother, Shirley Watson of Union City.
"He was my hero -- a practical joker, a protector. He could be ornery at times, but he smiled a lot too," she said Friday. Watson's father, Jay Watson, lives in Caro.
Watson was a muscular, well-known athlete in his tight-knit hometown near Battle Creek. A fifth-grade class at the middle school had bundled letters to send to him this weekend. School officials delivered the news Friday morning of his death.
Michele Kaniewski, a school library clerk who organized the pen-pal program with Watson, said the class was also going to send Watson presents for Christmas. She said her own son had been a wrestling teammate of Watson.
"He was a very sweet boy. But he'd wrestle kids 100 pounds more than him because he was all heart and he was so team-oriented," she said Friday, dissolving into tears.
Eric Tundevold, a math and physical-education teacher who is head football coach at Union City High School, said he coached Watson for several years.
"He played defensive line. He was probably 190 pounds when he played in school and not real tall, 5-7 or 5-8.
"But I remember him when he came back to visit, how trim he looked. I think he was proud of that," Tundevold said. "He didn't kill himself for grades. He was into playing sports and he liked girls. He could be prankster. He grinned a lot. And if he got in trouble, he'd take it pretty good. He'd say, 'Yeah, I did that. I'm sorry.' Now, a lot of us are sorry."
Watson was one of four children, all boys.
On Friday, his brother Brad, 20, recalled Watson playing defensive tackle to his linebacker on the school football team.
"He was right in front of me," he said. In sports and in his military service, Brad Watson said, his older brother never shrank from a challenge. "I actually look up to him for having the courage to do stuff."
Dear Sen. Warner, you're an idiot.
Who voted to send him to Iraq? Who defends Bush's stay-the-course strategy that's clearly not working? Who is the one who wrote the alternative to Harry Reid's resolution on troop withdrawel?
Before you blame the troops for their own deaths, you, and every other senator who the gave president his blank check, had better look in the mirror. God, and to think you were once an Admiral.