Soldiers are convicted; Army assailed

[MetaTrope]

Source: Louisville Courier-Journal

Wearing flip-flops, baggy shorts and a Johnny Cash T-shirt, former Pfc. Steven Green was led into a federal courtroom in Charlotte, N.C., on July 3, 2006.

He was ordered held without bond on the charge of rape and murder while "acting in an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner."

Nearly four months after the atrocities at Yusufiyah, Iraq, — where a 14-year-old girl was raped and she and her family murdered — the revelation that U.S. soldiers were the alleged perpetrators triggered international outrage.

...If the courts-martial of Green's co-conspirators are any guide, they will argue that the crimes were coldly calculated and had nothing to do with the traumas of war; that Green and the others were not facing imagined or perceived enemies that day; and that they attacked innocent civilians who they were supposed to protect.


Read more: http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090414/NEWS01/90413031/1008

[cliffordu]

1. Well....

Here's an argument for the death penalty....

[Tansy_Gold]

2. No. There is never an argument for the death penalty.

this is the paragraph that struck me as important --

When parents send "their young boys off to war," he said, "and they face things that shouldn't ever have to be faced, and they see the sort of things that human beings aren't born to see, and ... when they become altered by those things," officers should be "there to make sure that they do the right thing."


But it is other human beings who perpetrate those things, whether they are American commanders who send "young boys" off to a war that never had to be, whether they are religious fanatics who not only would rather die than live but are more than willing to force others to die with them, whether they are greedy bureaucrats and plutocrats who care nothing about human life but only want the oil and the gold and the power......

Those are the real criminals.




Tansy Gold

[cliffordu]

4. And yet, MILLIONS of young men and women who have

seen the same things DON'T rape and murder. Kinda voids that statement about being altered forever in that particular way.....

And these murdering little scumbags SHIT all over the honorable service of every veteran who ever served under the Geneva Convention, in ALL countries.

They are a disgrace to the uniform and this country.

Fuck them. I'd pull the switch on them myself.

edit for speling(sic)

[Iowa]

6. Yes and no...

I agree that there is never an argument for the death penalty.

I agree that the worthless turds who started the war-about-nothing-based-on-lies are the worst criminals.

But the part about soldiers raping and murdering innocent civilians because they experienced traumatic events, or because the military didn't have officers on the scene to make sure they did "the right thing", is utter bullshit. There is no trauma that would cause one to commit such an act, and only the lowest form of trash would require supervision to prevent them from doing it. There are no excuses for such atrocities. The perpetrators are scum.

[provis99]

7. Green was a monster before he entered the Army

that's why the army kept trying to get him discharged, any way they could. I say execute him.

[IndianaGreen]

11. This was a rape and cold blooded murder

The vast majority of GIs don't commit war crimes or crimes against humanity. This sociopathic POS stained the uniform he wore and caused great harm to the United States.

[Vektor]

10. I agree.

Some won't, but I do.

[lumpy]

3. " because I hated Iraqis" spc. James Barker's

excuse for murder and rape.

[The abyss]

5. The US government hung how many at Nuremberg?

[ThirdWorldJohn]

8. GWB must share a responsibility in these murders N/T

[Vidar]

9. Glad to hear it.

[uppityperson]

12. searching DU for other stuff on the trial, found your topic, thank you

I have put a couple in GD and LBN and they sink like a stone. Maybe I need to get a sexier subject line or maybe it has been too long, too much outrage about too many things? I hope that rather than indifference.