Pendleton 8 killed Gowad

Iraqi road bombs have accounted for 68 percent of all American troop casualties. Approximately 100 of our wounded have been permanently blinded and 200 permanently deafened, with more than 20,000 American troops wounded by road bombs.

The going pay for Iraqi road bombers is: $50 for a lookout, $100 to dig the hole, $200 to trigger the device. Approximately 2,200 of our troops have been killed by Iraqi road bombs. After being road-bombed our affected heroic troops use the term “dinged,” meaning they were deafened for periods of 30 minutes to half a day.

In a Sunni Iraqi neighborhood, a road bomber named Gowad had been arrested three times by American troops for setting road bombs and released each time by the Iraqi government. The Pendleton 8 were tired of this game, so they used smart military tactics to eliminate the bombing problem and, thereby, save Marine warrior lives by killing a terrorist bomber, or an accomplice.

Gowad was not at home, so they seized his next door neighbor, Awad, whose residence was separated from Gowad’s by a concrete wall (no side yards). The military judge at Corporal Thomas’ court martial (UT 7/12/07) stated that the prosecution had not proved to his satisfaction that Awad was the person killed by the Pendleton 8. In other words, the judge did not know who was actually terminated.

Since May of 2005 I have demonstrated for the Pendleton 8 at the front gate of Camp Pendleton and challenged General Mattis to prove that Gowad was alive. I have always maintained that the Pendleton 8 killed the real road bomber, Gowad. I also personally told Corporal Thomas that if he was right with God he would be found not guilty of murder and he was.

Archie McPhee