Soldier courtmartialed:Pot, valium, booze, threatened troops while in Iraq

[rainbow4321]

http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=92253


OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ An Army National Guard soldier from Rhode Island was convicted in a military court-martial at Fort Sill of various charges, including drinking alcohol, possessing drugs, weapons offenses and threatening fellow soldiers while stationed in Iraq.

Former Sgt. Kenneth William Clark was reduced in rank to private and received a bad-conduct discharge, according to his attorney, Patrick McLain. McLain characterized last week's court-martial as a victory for the defense because jurors voted not to give Clark jail time.

``Though the jury surely had its own reasons, they probably based it upon the rampant alcohol use by most of the members of this artillery battery and the poor leadership of the unit's senior NCOs and officers,'' McLain said.

During testimony at the trial, McLain said evidence showed drinking among soldiers in the unit was widespread. "The rampant alcohol use was to show that (Clark) could have reasonably believed that order was no longer in force," McLain said. ``This is one guy being brought in here, and here is the rest of his command bringing him down for the very conduct they themselves engaged in.''

[tocqueville]

1. reminds of another war...

when Johnson was president...

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. As I have always contended,

the troops in Nam weren't demoralized because they were reluctant draftees. They were demoralized because they believed they were fighting an illegal war to no good purpose with no end in sight.

The troops in Iraq, volunteers all, are fighting an illegal war to no good purpose with no end in sight. We will see the same drinking and drug use and breakdown of morale there that we saw in Nam.

Simply being a draftee does not make a bad soldier, and simply being a volunteer does not make a good one. A clear mission, a purpose and reason for going through what a soldier has to go through is what makes a good soldier. In WW2 there was a mission, and a reason to it, and a clearly defined goal, and though it was far more horrific than anything in Iraq or even Vietnam, there was nowhere near the morale problem seen in those conflicts.