So, what exactly are our troops told to do when they mingle with the natives in Iraq? Are they supposed to treat Iraqis respectfully, pass out candy to children and needed supplies to adults, and speedily address any complaints civilians bring to them regarding their own conduct or the conduct of other units in the immediate vicinity? Well, that may be the official line, but testimony in the murder trial of Marine Cpl. Trent D. Thomas is revealing that the actual instructions they receive from their commanders on how to deal with the locals required them, shall we say, to take a slightly different approach to interpersonal relations with the Iraqis (via the LA Times):

CAMP PENDLETON — A Marine corporal, testifying Saturday at the murder trial of a buddy, said that Marines in his unit began routinely beating Iraqis after being ordered by officers to “crank up the violence level.”

Cpl. Saul H. Lopezromo said Marines in his platoon, including the defendant, Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, were angry when officers criticized them as not being as tough as other Marine platoons.

“We’re all hard-chargers, we’re not there to mess around, so we took it as an insult,” Lopezromo said. […]

“We were told to crank up the violence level,” said Lopezromo, who testified for the defense. He indicated that during daily patrols the Marines became much rougher with Iraqis. Asked by a juror to explain, he said, “We beat people, sir.”

Lopezromo said he believed that officers knew of the beatings, and he suggested that the order to get tough soured him on the Marine Corps.

In layman’s terms, their butts were chewed out by their superiors for being a bunch of pussies, if you’ll pardon the expression. Marines aren’t supposed to be nice guys, despite the many counterinsurgency experts who tell us the best way to deal with civilian populations is to treat them at all times with the utmost respect in order to gain their trust and respect in return. No, Marines are supposed to be shit kickers, and they are also taught to follow orders. So, it’s not surprising that this was the end result of an order to crank up the violence:

Within weeks of allegedly being scolded, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman went out late one night to find and kill a suspected insurgent in the village of Hamandiya near the Abu Ghraib prison. The Marines and corpsman were from 2nd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment.

Lopezromo said their target was known to his neighbors as the “prince of jihad” and had been arrested several times, only to be released by the Iraqi legal system.

Unable to find their target, the Marines and corpsman dragged another man from his house, fatally shot him, and then planted an AK-47 assault rifle near the body to make it look like he had been killed in a shootout, according to court testimony. […]

Lopezromo, who was not part of the squad on its late-night mission, said he saw nothing wrong in what Thomas and the others did.

“I don’t see it as an execution, sir,” he told the judge. “I see it as killing the enemy.”

He added that Marines, in effect, consider all Iraqi men as part of the insurgency. “Because of the way they live, the clans, they’re all in it together,” he said. […]

Prosecution witnesses testified that Thomas shot the 52-year-old Iraq at point-blank range after he had already been shot by other Marines and was lying on the ground.

Lopezromo said a procedure called “dead-checking” was routine. If Marines entered a house where a man was wounded, instead of checking to see whether he needed medical aid, they shot him to make sure he was dead, he testified.

“If somebody is worth shooting once, they’re worth shooting twice,” he said.

You think the “surge” is going to magically convert all the ill feelings of ordinary Iraqis, all the anger and hatred that they haven built up over the last 4 years as a direct result result of such conduct by these Marines and other US troops stationed there into support for our occupation by the time General Petraeus reports to Congress in September? By December? By the end of the Bush administration?

Yeah, me neither.