[De Oppresso Liber]

Hawkeyeted, on 16 March 2012 - 01:08 PM, said:

If someone was watching out for this guy, his "tell" could be seen a mile away. How many of you saw "The Hurt Locker"? Did anyone else notice how SFC James was a little "off"? I can guarantee this guy was "off", but for some reason nobody said anything, just like Pict said.

The stupid, gimped assed RoE is what is doing this to our soldiers and Marines. It is preventing them from "winning" the war for the simple fact that they are trained to kill people and break things but are being used as Quran fodder.

It's crap and we need to get out. We need to get out, not because we've lost the will to fight (as the Left has), but because we're not using them in the manner in which they're supposed to be used for.

He was failed.

These kinds of acts do not just suddenly appear one day. It builds.

[GI JANE]

Adam Smithee, on 15 March 2012 - 04:30 PM, said:

I agree that he should be turned over to the locals. There is well-established precedent for that, when a soldier commits a crime against locals entirely on his own.

As for "Bringing him to the point" ? The majority of the blame for that lies solidy withpiss poor command-and-control for which, as Harry truman once said, the buck stops at the oval office.

Two things should happen:

A ) Turn the perp over to the locals. It's what would happen if a US soldier committed a crime against a local in any other posting, no reason it shouldn't happen here.

B ) Court martial the senior NCO and/or the Division Officer for "Dereliction of Duty". Leadership means only knowing how to bark orders but also means being reponsible for your people and taking care of them. His immediate leaders failed, plain and simple. Stripes and commissions should be lost over this.

Really? So what about the muzzie scumbags who have a habit of shooting American troops?

http://townhall.com/...rders_us_marine

Yeah, we'll turn them over to the locals so they can get safe haven.

Again, and this cannot be said enough:
I just can’t muster up a whole lot of give a f**k.

Bushels of civilians are killed in every war. That should not prevent us from doing what is necessary to defeat the enemy.

Our current enemy doesn’t wear identifiable uniforms. Taliban and Al Qaeda are notorious for recruiting and blending in with the locals and screeching “war crimes!” when you kill them and some non-combatants because they just so happen to be in the same village.

Our Soldiers are saddled with f****d up ROE, while the enemy kills carte blanche. Killing the enemy should not be a Courts Martial offence. The Staff Sergeant will be tried, convicted, and sent to Leavenworth, while terrorists are continuously released from GITMO to pick up where they left off.

As for the MSM, this is just more fodder for their anti-miltary tirades.

[Adam Smithee]

pict, on 16 March 2012 - 10:57 AM, said:

This was a serving NCO in a combat unit. Part of his job is to watch out for grunts who are going to flake in the field. It's a pity nobody was covering this man's back.
The system failed him.

I agree. It's why I said what I did earlier in the thread about courts-martialing his superiors.

The guy is, I believe, a Staff Sargeant (E-6) which means in the US Army he's probably a squad leader (or what the US Navy called a section leader when I was in). His immediate superiors would be the Platoon leader, usually a junior officer (O-2 or O-3) assisted by a platoon sergeant that's a senior NCO (E-7,8,9). (In the Navy the equivalent positions would be Divison Officer and the Lead Chief Petty Officer).

These two people should have had his back. That they didn't, I would consder dereliction of duty.

[Adam Smithee]

Buckwheat Jones, on 16 March 2012 - 09:35 AM, said:

Ok, so he gets tried here and goes to prison for life. Sort of a temporary insanity thing? Does the military still perform executions? Just curious.

There are (6) people theoretically on military death row. I say theoretically because they haven't actually executed anyone since 1961. Reagan reinstated the death penalty in the military in the '80s but they've never gotten around to actually doing it.

[pict]

Adam Smithee, on 17 March 2012 - 03:55 AM, said:

I agree. It's why I said what I did earlier in the thread about courts-martialing his superiors.

The guy is, I believe, a Staff Sargeant (E-6) which means in the US Army he's probably a squad leader (or what the US Navy called a section leader when I was in). His immediate superiors would be the Platoon leader, usually a junior officer (O-2 or O-3) assisted by a platoon sergeant that's a senior NCO (E-7,8,9). (In the Navy the equivalent positions would be Divison Officer and the Lead Chief Petty Officer).

These two people should have had his back. That they didn't, I would consder dereliction of duty.

The soldier detained was told he wouldn't be sent on a 4th deployment, but was instead sent to Afghanistan. The day before he cracked, his buddy's leg was blown off while he was standing next to him.

He had been injured twice himself while on past deployments, this man should have been pulled out of combat duty.

[pict]

Quote

Bales's attorney, John Henry Browne has said that Bales did not want to deploy to Afghanistan in December, had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his deployments and had suffered a head injury during a deployment in Iraq. Bales also had seen one of his fellow soldiers lose his leg in an explosion hours before he allegedly went on a rampage, Browne told reporters.

Army Capt. Chris Alexander, 28, who was Bales's platoon leader during a deployment in Iraq, said in an interview Friday night that he "saved many a life" by never letting his guard down during patrols.

Link