GIS ARRESTED IN $1M SWAG SNAG

New York Post ^ | 4/22/03 | JONATHAN FOREMAN

[kattracks]

The Post's Jonathan Foreman holds $100,000 in each hand from a box that Army soldiers found in a Baghdad cottage. Four GIs from the 64th Armored face court-martials for allegedly stealing some of the loot.

FOUR sticky-fingered GIs have been arrested for trying to steal nearly $1 million of the $700 million in cold cash found hidden on the grounds of several estates in Baghdad, Army officials said yesterday.

[polemikos]

Hey, I lost some boxes just like that. They were kinda steel looking. Yeah, and kinda heavy. Like they were packed with paper. Yeah. That's it. I'm sure those are mine. Thanks.

[orlop9]

Pardon the hell outa me but I don't blame 'em. You heard it here folks, thats right, line up & take yer best shot.

[tictoc]

I would not do it.

I'll be honest, though: at age 21, I might well have given in to temptation.

[drlevy88]

American soldiers don't loot. Period.

[CWOJackson]

Sounds like George Clooney was back in uniform for a repeat performance of his last Gulf War movie.

[xm177e2]

An officer said the brigade feared the thefts would overshadow their discovery of the huge hoard of money.

The way the media spins things, of course. It won't be "Saddam had plenty of money to feed Iraqis despite the sanctions, and now the US is returning it," the lead meme of the day will be "fascist baby-killing American GIs steal from Iraqis"

[flying Elvis]

Tough call on this one. It's easy to rationalize this money belonging to some Baathist official and therefore fair game. The sad thing is some Iraqi or UN bureaucrat will probably skim that much more off the top and never get caught.

[orlop9]

American soldiers don't loot. Period.

[drlevy88]

Not the US. The only mementos that our forces are allowed to take are figures of Saddam.

[PLMerite]

"Kelly's Heroes" has always been one of my favorite movies.

I can't say as I wouldn't be tempted to do similar.

[patj]

I think it's called a "finders fee".

[RandallFlagg]

Personally, I would have taken all the cash...

Divided it up with my pals...

Walked out to the Iraqi streets...

And thrown gobs and gobs of it to all the Iraqi people.

None for myself; it's not my money, it's their's.

[putupon]

300K out of 700 million? Pocket change, cut the guys a little slack. They just needed some walk around money to tour Baghdad with.

[hotpotato]

I was thinking the same thing. Would have been hard not to just divide it by 24 million and see every Iraqi citizen (minus the baathists) get their due. Instead, it will go to bureaucrats.

[wrbones]

It's only looting if ya get caught. I wouldn't a gotten caught.

Until after WWI, although looting was frowned on, there weren't a lot of prosecutions for the activity. Service people were always taking mementos home with them. That was ever the nature of warfare. Historically, many armies were paid thus. The US has won several battles in our history due to this activity on the part of our enemies, notably on certain islands in the Pacific during WWII. The enemy would stop fighting and start looting before the battle or skirmish was finished in their favor. In one or two cases, this is why the Japanese losses were so dramatic. We mowed them down when they did this. An example of this can be found in the book "Chesty" by Lt. Col. John T. Hoffman USMCR

This is why it's against the rules for us to loot. It's bad for discipline, and resultant friendly losses are unacceptable. It's not a good way to win a war.

In times past, the US would raid the bases/outposts of our enemies and anyone who was trading with our enemies during a time of war, taking everything and bringing it home to be used for the war effort. On one occassion, if this hadn't been done (by the Navy and a buncha Marines, btw) there might not be a United Sates today. We needed bullets and guns and the English had a trading partner who allowed them to stash some stuff at the fort there. We took it.

Often the officers and men were given a percentage of the spoils depending on their rank and senority. In one instance, rum was the most valuable loot taken. Rum being a part of the daily ration for service people, that raid
saved us quite a bit of money. The alcohol ration was discontinued during the VietNam War, but booze is still considered a prize by many military members the world over.

Sadly, this isn't the past, so those soldiers are gonna pay the price. Historially,in our nation, they woulda paid the price anyway.The loot had to be divvied up first.

It might be time to consider giving military personnel a reasonable and substantial pay raise. They might not be as tempted next time.

[drlevy88]

'twould take quite a pay raise to compete with a $300,000 stash

[finnman69]

[cryptical]

I was telling my old man that the first thing I would have done in that situation is call Don Rickles to help me launder the money :)

[NFOShekky]

"Kelly's Heroes" has always been one of my favorite movies." You beat me to the punch on this one! Slap them on the wrist and give the money to the USO, Navy Relief, etc