Mercy and Murder at Issue in Iraq Death (Murder by 2 US Troops)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/la-fg-mercykilling5nov05,0,1561894,print.story?coll=la-home-headlines

<snip>

American troops had been clashing regularly with Al Mahdi militiamen in the restive Baghdad slum. So when Staff Sgt. Cardenas Alban of Carson saw an object fall from a garbage truck in the distance, his company took positions around the vehicle and unleashed a barrage of fire from rifles and a 25-millimeter cannon atop a Bradley fighting vehicle. The truck exploded in flames.

As soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 41st Infantry Regiment, approached the burning vehicle, they did not find insurgents. The victims were mainly teenagers, hired to work the late shift picking up trash for about $5 a night, witnesses said.

Medics scrambled to treat the half-dozen people strewn around the scene. A dispute broke out among a handful of soldiers standing over one severely wounded young man who was moaning in pain. An uninjured Iraqi claiming to be a relative pleaded in broken English for soldiers to help the victim.

But to the horror of bystanders, Alban, 29, a boyish-faced sergeant who joined the Army in 1997, retrieved an M-231 assault rifle and fired at the wounded man.

Seconds later, another soldier, Staff Sgt. Johnny Horne Jr., 30, of Winston-Salem, N.C., grabbed an M-16 rifle and also shot the victim.

<snip>

U.S. officials have since characterized the shooting as a "mercy killing," citing statements by Alban and Horne that they shot the wounded Iraqi "to put him out of his misery."

[JSJ]

1. support the troops...

...with a hangman's noose.

[DELUSIONAL]

2. Playing god just like their leader

Oh right -- Support the Troops.

Put the victims out of their misery just like dogs or horses or other animals?

Rah rah rah Support the Troops! Send these suckers stuff the US government won't supply.

Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam Vietnam

Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee
Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee Wounded Knee

[cornermouse]

3. Makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it?

(Sarcasm)

[Carolab]

4. OMG

This is just too horrifying to contemplate.

I wonder are these sons of some of the "moral" Americans who voted for Bush?

[Knurled99]

5. Don't not support the troops

Look, out of the 140,000 people in that quagmire at any given time, there are bound to be a certain number of assholes. But please don't lump all of "the troops" together in your assesment of two troops' behavior. Average soldiers/sailors/airmen want college educations, are broke, don't have medical coverage, come from dead-end-poor towns, etc. I guaruntee you that they all thought that being where they are now was a helluva long-shot. They are hungry, hot, dirty, undersupplied, etc. and to add to it, they are under constant fear of dying at the hands of people they have little or no way of communicating with and whom they can't tell from the general population.

Now look, I do not forgive these two horrors of humanity for what they did. Iraqi men are not horses to be shot for a broken leg. But it does bother me a little when you project your anger over the incident onto ALL of "the troops."

Edited for clarity

[JSJ]

6. only 21% of post-service troops ever apply for the money...

...to get an education- what a load of multifarious crap to say we should excuse their murderous ways because we're under the misapprehension that they want an education they rarely seek. Crap! They just want to kill and get away with it. Mark my words.

[Knurled99]

7. Your words dont mean shit to me

You couldn't even read my whole post before spewing them out. This "troop" and my brother, even more of a "troop" would never even consider doing what happened there. We're too busy writing on DU and trying to advance progressive issues. We've both found that most military kids (yes most of them are KIDS) are very receptive to progressive ideas. To say that everyone who joined the military did so because they have a desire to kill is rediculous. It insults me.

[JSJ]

8. the troops are receptive to only one thing...

...being viewed as anything and everything other than the paid killers for the US government that they are. And...they're very adept at appearing to be what people want them to appear to be. You're insulted? Well, 'insulted', there are now close to 1,000,000 Iraqis- most of them children- who are simply...dead.

[Knurled99]

9. Yes!

You obviously have spent so much time around military personnel. Gosh thanks for showing me the light. Now I know that the hours I spent making calls for the Kerry campaign and the money I donated out of my MEAGER salary were just to cover up my will to go around skull-fucking everyone who looks like they might deny the Bush cabal some more money. I just can't WAIT to go to Iraq so I might get to kill someone!

Get a grip dude.

[JSJ]

10. was that sarcasm? in fact, there are two military reservations...

...in and surrounding my town, so it's probable that I know a thing a two about those creeps in uniform. Now, do you have anything probative- or are you just another troop with a mental disorder?

[Knurled99]

11. OK

Look pal I'm not going to argue with you. We are supposed to be on the same side. I was merely suggesting that most troops, indeed the vast majority, are not in the military because they dream of killing people or enriching Bush. They are doing it because, for whatever reason, they think they are doing a good thing. For me it is to pay for school, because I couldn't do it on my own. All of my military friends want out of Iraq, and voted for Kerry. The others, believe it or not, have little idea of what foreign policy is and how it affects them. They are following their orders that invariably came from the top first, because they were told from infancy that doing so would be an honorable thing.

I think that those two guys who killed the wounded man will come to swift and well-deserved justice. As for the rest of the military, why don't you support them by advocating their removal from Iraq. That'll make them AND you happy!

[JSJ]

12. there are less lethal ways to 'do good' and/or to pay for school

And if you do end up going to school on the GI Bill, you'll be in a small minority that do so, coming out of the military.

[FLSurfer]

13. OK let me get this straight

The soldiers shot and burned this guy up to the point he was killed to put him out of his misery.
Now they are in trouble for the latter?
The military has no problem with the first part?

[JSJ]

14. you got it! but, you must always 'support the troops'

[radric]

15. Until..

you happen to be in a war zone where you could die at any time please don't post opinions of something you have no clue about. Was what they did wrong? Absolutely. And they will spend a majority of the rest of their life in a federal prison. These guys/gals operate on a hair trigger, like any of us would, if faced with what they do day in and day out. It's easy to be "holier than thou" from a safe distance sitting in front of computer monitor.