If we are to complain, let it be about the greedy contractors over there who commit more crimes than all soldiers but who are not under the same restrictions or laws. There are nearly as many highly paid (by us taxpayers) private contractors in Iraq than we have soldiers over there. Something is deeply wrong when this occurs at taxpayer expense on a scale that is costing us 10 times the taxpayer money. These corporations should be banned from operating in the manner they do.

gforce510 Says:
August 5th, 2007 at 5:50 am
I was once a Soldier, who now has a son serving his 3rd tour in Iraq, he’s 22 years old and he was crazy as a loon before he left this last time.

As was I, and as is MY son, and he recently did a year on Route Irish with the 256th BCT and they had no one charged with ANY crimes against humanity, they served, and did their jobs in a professional manner…

So if my son rapes, pilledges, and kills everything that moves

Your excuses do NOT hold water, any soldier that would resort to this type of behavior is not a SOLDIER, he is a criminal and should be treated as such, regardless of how many combat tours he has…

And IF your son is as imbalanced as you say he is, one letter to your Congressman should be more than enough, as long as you Cc it to the DoD, and the White House itself…

I am in full agreement with the fact that our troops are stressed, and stretched too thin, and are NOT getting the OFF time out of the rotation they truly need, and I realize that we are seeing some mental problems develop as well, it’s a fact of life in combat troops, there are ALWAYS scars, some are just more well hidden than others, but there is NO EXCUSE to become a rapist and a murderer, under NO conditions is that an acceptable action, not from U.S. troops…

I’m not sure that anyone has fully grasped MY take on this for some reason, other than Basti, we have argued this before, and remain close friends…

I KNOW our guys can break the law in a combat zone, and this is one of those terrible times, and it appears that justice IS being served…

Even a line about eating dead babies.

I’d suppose the Army does too, Hell I dunno.

For some reason I doubt they are singing that cadence in the morning run formations, in this BS PC war in either branch. This stuff was unofficially endorsed by Battalion, Regiment, Division in the Marines.

We’d run by the CG’s location frequently, yelling at the top of our lungs.

No Full Birds or Generals had a 1st Shirt, Sgt Major or a Master Gunnery Sgt. running out, with hands in the air, saying no, no, don’t say that. No, we were killing machines by God. Didn’t mean we were going to commit the most heinous war crimes though. It’s called brains…

However, when you are the most feared and deadliest weapon in the world you got that way by good hard, and motivating training and by singing songs like I mentioned.

Personal responsibility of actions yes, and that includes accountabilty on the command level; what kind of training regiment did he receive and how much “blood makes the grass grow “programming did he get?

A ton I’d say, and without this proven method of mental preparedness the Marine Corps, for example, would be nothing but a bunch of politically correct wusses with a history of lost battles and retreat.

It’s too harsh of a sentence, punishment yes, but with a “break shit” mentality, I’m sure some units have in the Army, he took it too far. But those in command love the motivating shit; but get in trouble and it’s like ” Damn, we didn’t mean it literally.”

There will always be that weak link of any unit, that 10%, that would and do.

110 years is only a number, the actual sentence is when is he “elegible” for parole. As a former parole officer, that ain’t a bad sentence. If he behaves himself in the pokey, he’ll get out. 10 years for complicity in the death of 4 innocents? Nah, that is not harsh, harsh would be the same sentence the others got.

OK Fred, I’ve taken enough of your time. Thanks for the writing space.

The sentence was to harsh.

The trial of that “young” man is pure crap and I hope when all of the media drama is over he is sent home with a new name, social security number ad some therapy. Now that is the right thing to do if justice is to be served here.

I was once a Soldier, who now has a son serving his “3″ tour in Iraq, he’s 22 years old and he was crazy as a loon before he left this last time. I called his company commander at 3rd Infantry and of course he was unavailable, so I spoke to the Chaplain and was flat out told that even if he had a bullet lodged in his head he would still have to go because they needed the “BODY COUNT”, these words were said to me vebatim.

So if my son rapes, pilledges, and kills everything that moves, you better know I am going to show up before CONGRESS with that recorded conversation and insist that the fault does not lie with him but his faulty command, and the horrific decisions of his President.

If you want to try again, you may get to post a comment, but I suggest you leave your nausea out of it and talk like a man, and don’t condemn ME for something someone else said…

I know what men in particular let alone troops trained to consider all who aren’t Americans as enemies will get up to. I know for a fact what our troops got up to in SE Asia and how 99.99999% of it was covered up. And when it comes to women anything short of outright murder was/is fair game.

This has turned into a political thing because what our troops have done overseas is minor in comparison to what Germans, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Iraqi, UN etc, troops have done in the past and in some cases are still doing today. That said I think the sentence was on the harsh side.