Accused GI in trouble before Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

July 14, 2006, 10:47PM
Accused GI in trouble before Iraq
Rape-slaying suspect enlisted under a waiver


By JIM DWYER and ROBERT F. WORTH
New York Times

On the last day of January 2005, Steven D. Green, the former Army private now accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her and her family, sat in a Texas jail on alcohol-possession charges, an unemployed 19-year-old high school dropout with his third misdemeanor conviction.
Days later, Green enlisted in a war-strapped Army and was assigned to a seemingly star-crossed unit to serve on a particularly violent patch of earth.

He enlisted at the time that the Army was increasing — by nearly half again as much — the rate at which it granted waivers to potential recruits who otherwise might not qualify. The waivers opened enlistment to others like Green, with minor criminal records and weak educations.

The Army's waiver for Green brought an apparently troubled young man into the heart of a conflict that continued to need fresh recruits.
(snip/...)

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/4048360.html

[wakeme2008]

1. Thank you NY Times...... Yes,,,,,,

"accused of raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl "

AP take NOTES...

[leftchick]

2. waivers, waivers, waivers

I can see the recruiters now hanging outside every probation officer's office across the country. The best and the brightest eh?

[0007]

3. Rape, Murder, and attempted Corpse burning = Personality Disorder!

Another loser from Midland Texas

[no_hypocrisy]

4. How can the Army have 20/20 hindsight about this?

While I certainly don't condone what Green and his military cohorts did to the 14 year old girl and her family, I ask how could the military have predicted this scenario? Green was "in trouble" since his teens, but they were misdemeanors that are not atypical for kids that age: cigarettes, alcohol, and pot. He was not arrested or convicted of any prior violent crime or federal criminal statute. For all the military could have guessed, he joined the armed services to "straighten out his life".

On the other hand, if Green demonstrated unusual violent propensities while in the military, they had adequate notice and should have dealt with it appropriately BEFORE he committed this series of heinous crimes.

[Moderator]

5. Not LBN

The original New York Times feature article was posted two days ago. It can be found here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x222193