Lesson plan
Dead checking
Dead checking is U.S. military jargon for the practice of verifying the death of Iraqi insurgents and the subsequent killing of those who remain alive when U.S. Armed Forces enter an insurgent house in hot battle as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The term was in use as early as November 2004 when reporter Evan Wright of The Village Voice quoted an unnamed enlisted U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran as saying, "They teach us to do dead-checking when we're clearing rooms. You put two bullets into the guy's chest and one in the brain. But when you enter a room where guys are wounded you might not know if they're alive or dead. So they teach us to dead-check them by pressing them in the eye with your boot, because generally a person, even if he's faking being dead, will flinch if you poke him there. If he moves, you put a bullet in the brain. You do this to keep the momentum going when you're flowing through a building. You don't want a guy popping up behind you and shooting you." The term was used again by the Associated Press in July 2007, when Corporal Saul H. Lopezromo, a defense witness in the murder trial of Corporal Trent D.…
Article summary
Dead checking is U.S. military jargon for the practice of verifying the death of Iraqi insurgents and the subsequent killing of those who remain alive when U.S. Armed Forces enter an insurgent house in hot battle as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The term was in use as early as November 2004 when reporter Evan Wright of The Village Voice quoted an unnamed enlisted U.S. Marine and Iraq war veteran as saying, "They teach us to do dead-checking when we're clearing rooms. You put two bullets into the guy's chest and one in the brain. But when you enter a room where guys are wounded you might not know if they're alive or dead. So they teach us to dead-check them by pressing them in the eye with your boot, because generally a person, even if he's faking being dead, will flinch if you poke him there. If he moves, you put a bullet in the brain. You do this to keep the momentum going when you're flowing through a building. You don't want a guy popping up behind you and shooting you." The term was used again by the Associated Press in July 2007, when Corporal Saul H. Lopezromo, a defense witness in the murder trial of Corporal Trent D.…
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.