Posted on 03/21/2011 12:23:18 PM PDT by GreatJoeMcCarthy
The U.S. Army has been forced to apologise over what they have deemed as 'repugnant' photographs of grinning American soldiers standing over bloodied and partially-naked Afghan bodies they had allegedly killed.
The pictures were published by German news organisation Der Spiegel and were among 4,000 they have obtained.
Meanwhile, commanders in Afghanistan are bracing themselves for a public backlash and possible riots over the 'trophy' photographs, especially since it has been alleged that the Afghan civilians were unarmed and innocent.
Senior officials at Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul have compared the pictures published by the German news weekly to the images of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners in Abu Ghraib in Iraq which sparked waves of anti-U.S. protests around the world.
It is feared that these pictures - which show the aftermath of the murders at the hands of a rogue U.S. Stryker 'kill team' - could be even more damaging as the trials of the 12 accused men are currently under way in Seattle.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Internet tough guy defends haji...perfect.
Something about this story stinks. What stinks is the number 4,000.
War is killing people and breaking things. Stryker teams are good at this. What a bunch of gutless weenies are commenting here.......
PC run amok........
These guys deliberately targeted innocent civilians for laughs. They aren’t collateral damage, they are victims of deliberate murder...
“I had enough. Stop the madness. Take him out with one well placed JDAM and lets move on.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=2691731,10
Is it against US law to target and kill Muammar Gaddafi?
...Says the liberal foreign rags "Der Speigel" and "Daily Mail".
Sure seem to be a lot of John Murtha wannabes around here lately.
“Obama produced a birth certificate. Birthers responded by saying that the birth certificate was not authentic. Two 1961 Hawaiian newspaper editions had a birth announcement regarding Obama. Birthers responded by saying any foreigner could have planted those announcements. What more needs to be done? How much more truthiness is required?”
http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/post?id=2684750,79
You defend Obama but you call are quick to call our soldiers animals.
You are a fraud.
The Daily Mail is hardly liberal. Besides, one of the soldiers has already pleaded guilty and is testifying against the others. I don’t think there is much room to claim that they are being railroaded here. Even if the civilians were collateral damage, they’d still deserve to get thrown in jail for posing for pics with shit eating grins on their faces with the corpses.
As other people have said, this kind of thing puts other soldiers in danger by inflaming local opinion...
I'd be interested in seeing the "deal" he was offered for his testimony.
Even if the civilians were collateral damage...
I'm not convinced they were civilians... yet. Everyone I have talked to, and everything I have seen leads me to believe that it is very difficult to determine insurgent fighters from civilians.
During my time in Gulf I in 1991, we took many, many EPWs who were dressed in civilian clothes, but were definitely enemy combatants. In some locations, flip-flops and sweatsuits were nearly as common as military uniforms.
I will ALWAYS give an American soldier the benefit of the doubt until he has been judged guilty by a military court. I have a higher opinion of, and more trust in the American Soldier than I do of ANY press, foreign or domestic.
I'll wait for the verdict, thanks.
If these incidents are proven and are as reported, these soldiers should be court-martialed and put in the big house for a long tour.
This type of behavior, because of its impact on politics around the world, can impact the entire conduct of the war as well as jeopardize the lives of others. It is beyond stupid and reprehensible. It can set back the mission and, for that, any soldier guilty of such misconduct should pay a very severe price.
All soldiers get training on the Code of Conduct, Law of War, Rules of Engagement, etc.
This type of behavior must be repeatedly and vehemently warned against, and anyone who engages in it must be prosecuted under the UCMJ, shamed and punished.
As I said earlier, it is not just about doing something stupid and reprehensible. This type of behavior can ruin a nation’s entire war effort, not to mention put others, including other soldiers, at risk.
It’s not a horrible prank, but a form of treason, in my book. It can undermine the war effort, and everything that has been accomplished so far, just as surely, if not more so, than providing secrets to the enemy.
There is no excuse for it and the military better be out front telling guys six-ways-to-Sunday what the consequences will be for even thinking about engaging in this crap.
I’m not frustrated by their stupidity. I’m spitting mad at them and hope they are strung up to the fullest extent of the law.
As I said earlier, this is beyond stupidity. This is the type of conduct that, rightly or wrongly, fairly or not, causes incredible political problems for our nation’s leaders and our military leaders. This reprehensible misconduct can jeopardize the entire war effort.
Yes, they are always a few bad apples. But they need to be crushed. And this type of incident must be addressed strongly and forthrightly in every training session that soldiers are given about conduct on the battlefield. And this training needs to include that anyone who engages in this type of behavior will be severely shamed and punished.
Soldiers should always conduct themselves as though anyone around them might take a picture and publish it on the web.
My only issue is that the media won’t try to taint Obama with this, like Abu Gharib and President Bush.
Sure glad I opted for that Article 15 back in '76.
Durn... I screwed that HTML all up... Sorry, all.
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