Cries for 'US Troops Out Now' Follow Soldier's Alleged Killing of Woman in Philippines

[unhappycamper]

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/14/cries-us-troops-out-now-follow-soldiers-alleged-killing-woman-philippines

?itok=PZeU7izk

'Surrender the American soldier to Philippine authorities, then allow all U.S. ships and military personnel to leave and never come back,' said critic

Cries for 'US Troops Out Now' Follow Soldier's Alleged Killing of Woman in Philippines
Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Dozens of people protested outside the U.S. Embassy in Manila on Tuesday demanding the expulsion of U.S. troops and calling for justice for the death of a transgender woman allegedly at the hands of a Marine.

Twenty-six-year-old Jennifer Laude, identified in some media reports as Jeffrey Laude, was found dead Saturday night at a hotel in Olongapo City, which is located on Subic Bay, about 60 miles from Manila Bay.

Various details are emerging of what transpired the evening Laude died—that she met the suspect at a bar, the two went back to the hotel together, she was found in the hotel room with signs of strangulation, beatings and drowning, and there were used condoms in the room.

The suspect in the case has been identified by an eyewitness and CCTV footage as Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, who is being held on board the USS Peleliu. Pemberton is among thousands of Marines who were in the area for joint military exercises carried out by U.S. and Philippine forces.

..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_rome

The Fall of the Western Roman Empire was the period of decline in the Western Roman Empire in which it disintegrated and split into numerous successor states. By 476 CE, when Odoacer deposed the Emperor Romulus, the Western Roman Empire wielded negligible military, political, or financial power and had no effective control over the scattered Western domains that could still be described as Roman. Invading "barbarians" had established their own polities on most of the area of the Western Empire. While its legitimacy lasted for centuries longer and its cultural influence remains today, the Western Empire never had the strength to rise again.

One hundred years previously, in 376 CE, large numbers of Goths crossed the Danube River. They sought admission to the territory of the Roman Empire, a political institution which, despite both new and longstanding systematic weaknesses, wielded effective power across the lands surrounding the Mediterranean and beyond. The Empire had large numbers of trained, supplied, and disciplined soldiers, it had a comprehensive civil administration based in thriving cities with effective control over public finances. Among its literate elite it had ideological legitimacy as the only worthwhile form of civilization and a cultural unity based on comprehensive familiarity with Greek and Roman literature and rhetoric. The Empire's power allowed it to maintain extreme differences of wealth and status (including slavery on a large scale)[1] and its wide-ranging trade networks permitted even modest households to use goods made by professionals a long way away.[2]

The events of the decline became the subject of debate at the time, which often took on a strongly religious flavor. Like the events surrounding the fall of the Roman Republic, much of this period is unusually well-documented, though there are very few statistics which directly describe the strength of the economy, army, civil administration, or "barbarians". Modern historians nevertheless debate the relative importance of these and other factors, in particular, whether the state was significantly weaker by 376 than it had been in previous centuries, and why the West collapsed while the East did not. The collapse, and the repeated attempts to reverse it, are major subjects of the historiography of the ancient world and they inform much modern discourse on state failure.[3][4]

~snip~

Financial, military, and political ineffectiveness: the process of failure

The ineffectiveness of Roman military responses from Stilicho onwards has been described as "shocking",[71] with little evidence of indigenous field forces or of adequate training, discipline, pay, or supply for the barbarians who formed most of the available troops. Local defence was at times effective, but was often associated with withdrawal from central control and taxes; in many areas, barbarians under Roman authority attacked culturally-Roman "Bagaudae".[72][73][74] The rich senatorial aristocrats in Rome itself became increasingly influential during the fifth century; they supported armed strength in theory, but did not wish to pay for it or to offer their own workers as army recruits.[75][76] They did, however, pass large amounts of money to the Christian Church.[77] The fifth-century Western emperors, with brief exceptions, were individuals incapable of ruling effectively or even of controlling their own courts.[70] During the fifth century, incoming non-Romans managed to establish polities on Roman soil, eventually founding their own kingdoms on most of what had been the Western Empire.

[nitpicker]

1. Actually, it's Marine against transgender

Now the suspect has been charged:

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20141015/NEWS06/310150077/U-S-Marine-charged-murder-Philippines

And PACOM ordered the ships to remain in port.

[nitpicker]

2. Update

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20141016/NEWS/310160041/3-Navy-ships-depart-Philippines-Peleliu-remains-as-murder-investigation-continues

3 Navy ships depart Philippines, Peleliu remains as murder investigation continues
Oct. 16, 2014 - 07:52PM
By Jeff Schogol
Staff writer

Three U.S. Navy ships have been cleared to leave Subic Bay in the Philippines, but the amphibious assault ship Peleliu will remain in port as local authorities continue to investigate whether a Marine killed a transgender woman, according to Marine Corps Forces, Pacific.
(snip)