US solider charged with Murder

Local-womanizer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7902599.stm

His lawyers say he carried out the act because of sleep deperavation(Sp?)

Personally I think that is bs.

What do the rest of you thinkof the verdict?

Do you think Soliders are driven to these acts because of stress?

Is this a common occurance with coalition forces that are just being put down as acts of war?

samhail

we will never know the real story.
sleep depervation sounds like a court room label alright.
I would imagine that things can get bad for the guys in those conditions and i doubt that the iraqi was just sitting there being a good boy.
he was a medic too so maybe he just wanted some action.

seanybiker

samhail wrote: »

i doubt that the iraqi was just sitting there being a good boy.

He was escorting the iraqi away because there wasnt enough evidence against the iraqi. He was also blindfolded so i cant imagine he was been to much trouble.
Soldier should get death penalty for been a scum bag.

bunny shooter

Personally unless you have been in same circumstances eg war you would not be able to understand what he has had to come to terms with.

minidazzler

bunny shooter wrote: »

Personally unless you have been in same circumstances eg war you would not be able to understand what he has had to come to terms with.

Still, that is not justification for murder.

bunny shooter

minidazzler wrote: »

Still, that is not justification for murder.

Not really but it should be a consideration for the mental state of the accused would you not agree?

minidazzler

bunny shooter wrote: »

Not really but it should be a consideration for the mental state of the accused would you not agree?

I would yes. However, he should still be punished. Admittedly, Medics would probably see some of the worst things in War and that would affect one's mental state to no end. But, he still carried out a premeditated act of murder.

Leadership

seanybiker wrote: »

He was escorting the iraqi away because there wasnt enough evidence against the iraqi. He was also blindfolded so i cant imagine he was been to much trouble.
Soldier should get death penalty for been a scum bag.

I witnessed some of the most nasty pieces of humanity walk away from UN questioning (Google Mostar and read some of the stories) and then bragging of their crimes. I could have done the same myself under certain circumstances!

dlofnep

Good. Throw away the key!

Hard Larry

Two sides to every story who knows if the "victim" was a pillar of the community or a murderer himself?

Maybe the guy just saw too 1 too many of his mates get killed and was sick of "insufficient evidence" to charge the people responsible.

Still not a justification for murder you might say, but seriously when you hear of some dealer getting shot in Dublin or Limerick do you immediately think "poor guy" or "another one down"

as I said two sides to every story.

dlofnep

Hard Larry wrote: »

Two sides to every story who knows if the "victim" was a pillar of the community or a murderer himself?

Certainly not you. So no need to try and defend this act of murder.

Hard Larry

dlofnep wrote: »

Certainly not you. So no need to try and defend this act of murder.

I'm not defending anyone.

Some things just aren't Black & White thats all I'm saying.

dlofnep

They aren't, but you are sullying the person's life by creating what-if's that have absolutely no substance to support them.

Fighting Irish

bunny shooter wrote: »

Personally unless you have been in same circumstances eg war you would not be able to understand what he has had to come to terms with.

thats grand but its still murder, he chose to go to iraq to protect others from people like himself

Hard Larry

dlofnep wrote: »

They aren't, but you are sullying the person's life by creating what-if's that have absolutely no substance to support them.

Actually after reading this article I'm now inclined to agree with your first post

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/US-Soldier-Pleads-Guilty-To-Conspiracy-To-Murder-Over-The-Killing-Of-Four-Prisoners-In-Iraq/Article/200809315102372?f=rss

Edit: Here's a more in depth article I found.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/aug2008/iraq-a29.shtml

bunny shooter

"C'est la guerre" sums it up fairly well tbh

bunny shooter

Lots of people die in a war zone. Both combatants and non-combatants. Both sides could claim the other are the "murderers".

Send soldiers to a froeign country with a gun and someone is constantly trying to kill him and his mates what do you reckon he will do? Hug the "enemy to death?

minidazzler

bunny shooter wrote: »

Lots of people die in a war zone. Both combatants and non-combatants. Both sides could claim the other are the "murderers".

Send soldiers to a froeign country with a gun and someone is constantly trying to kill him and his mates what do you reckon he will do? Hug the "enemy to death?

Bunny, you know well enough now that killing is not the same as Murder.

What these soldiers did was an execution. It wasn't a battle, they had all the guns.

Yes they were seeking revenge, but as a First Sergeant, the leader of these men should know Revenge should be secondary to the mission.

samhail

the mission was done though.

"For the record, I don't like how this turned out any more then you do. But this is the world we live in. And justice does not always prevail. It's not the wild west where you can clean up the streets with a gun. Even though sometimes it's exactly what is needed... Bob Lee Swagger your free to go."

... guess what i was watching last night

Manic Moran

From that last posted description at WSW, it seems the judgement was likely correct. A First Sergeant is the senior enlisted man in the company. He's less likely to be directly involved in fighting, and should be mature and responsible enough to detach himself from the situation.

Though the article is a bit old, even by Aug 08, the Haditha killings had been shown to be a little less cut-and-dry than initially thought.

NTM