Soldier pleads guilty to making up war story told to students

[wicket]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/01/11/soldier_pleads_guilty_to_making_up_war_story_told_to_students/

A soldier has admitted fabricating a story he told high school students on Cape Cod about a 10-year-old Iraqi suicide bomber and has consented to a plea agreement, an Army spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Dennis Edwards' rank was reduced from sergeant to specialist under terms of the deal he consented to by pleading guilty last week to violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice, said Maj. Amy Hannah, a spokeswoman for Edwards' division, the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, N.C.

-snip-

Edwards described killing a 10-year-old boy in Iraq who had approached a U.S. base pretending to have a wounded leg, according to newspaper accounts of Edwards' comments during a question-and-answer session with about 95 students. He said the boy then pulled out an AK-47 rifle and began shooting. After he and two other soldiers shot and killed the boy, Edwards said, they found explosives strapped to his body.

-snip-

During the school talk, Edwards also criticized U.S. policy in Iraq, his superiors concluded. Edwards was later counseled about what soldiers can and cannot say in public in accordance with military conduct rules.

[LiberalVoice]

1. Well I wonder why they killed the little boy then...

Murderers.

[LynnTheDem]

2. Like the way BUSH makes up war stories?

Just a pair of total LIARS.

[Supersedeas]

5. Codes of justice do not apply to AWOL

[rucky]

3. Smell test:

Why would the guy lie about that?

Better question: Why would the military accuse him of lying? What's the shame in killing a 10-year-old?

[MADem]

4. He was probably one of those guys whose tours of duty

...consisted of hours and hours of boredom, punctuated by short moments of pantwetting fear. How do you explain that to kids in a classroom? He probably thought his embellishment made his experience more interesting, when in fact, the grindingly dull experiences, the long hours of same shit, different day, the "what the fuck was that big boom? Jesus!!!!" can be enlightening if told in an engaging fashion.

When you have a newspaper reporter in the room, you gotta check yourself. I suspect he was in uniform when he visited the school.

But WHAT I FIND MOST INTERESTING IS THIS--a fucking General by the name of Boykin can get up in uniform, in a church, and slander the religious practices that are shared by a number of Americans, many of whom serve in the Armed Forces, and he walks away without a scratch. This kid gets busted, fined, and put in hack for spouting horseshit, Boykin got another assignment. WTF????? There's a little problem with fairness right there, in my most humble opinion.