"Jury Orders Reprimand, No Jail for Soldier"

[GreenPartyVoter]

FORT CARSON, Colo. (AP) - A military jury has recommended that an officer once facing up to life in prison for the interrogation death of an Iraqi general be given only a reprimand, a decision that drew applause from soldiers.

Initially charged with murder, Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr. now faces no jail time, the forfeiture of $6,000 in salary and what amounts largely to a barracks restriction for 60 days.

"I deeply apologize if my actions tarnished the soldiers serving in Iraq," Welshofer said during his sentencing hearing. "It was never my intent to cast aspersions on their tremendous accomplishments."

Welshofer was convicted Saturday of negligent homicide and negligent dereliction of duty for stuffing the Iraqi general headfirst into a sleeping bag and sitting on his chest.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20060124/D8FB1BTG9.html

[Crankie Avalon]

1. And if it had been an American general...

...who had died while being "interrogated" by an Iraqi, would the decision to let him off also have been "applauded?"

Impossible to respect any so-called "soldier" who actually applauded this.

[gratuitous]

2. I have to agree with that

If this is what military service means, torturing, killing, and then letting the perpetrator go free to the applause of his brother officers, then there's damn little that's honorable, noble or good about it. And by the thundering silence from the rest of the military, I presume they acquiesce in this verdict.

[Solly Mack]

3. That's fucked up. I know I just stated the obvious

but damn.....that's fucked up.

They are making this worse by allowing the guilty to walk free. These chickens will come home to roost.... soldiers will be tortured and murdered....and it would be pure hypocrisy for the US to be outraged.

[DinahMoeHum]

4. "Military justice is to justice what military music is to music"

- Groucho Marx

:evilfrown:

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Next time I hear about "Law and Order" and the sanctity of human life

You can bet I'm pulling this one out. Suffocate a man to death in the midst of a beating? Sixty days barracks restriction. Caught in possession of 30 hits of LSD? Life without parole, maximum security. It's the fucking world turned upside down. And these douchebags are cheering?

[Selatius]

7. Because it's one less war crime on the record of the military

If it had come to a conviction, it would be recorded, and it would stain the military's prestige and record permanently.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Upside down and inside out

[Selatius]

6. Shouldn't have this been an international issue instead of internal?

You have a military system set up to process individuals in the military who may or may not be guilty. Pardon me for asking, but isn't there an inherent bias and/or conflict of interest programmed into such a system?

[Metta]

9. Another sign that the apocalypse is alread upon us.

The rest is just watching where the debris falls and trying to stay out of the way.

[nomaco-10]

10. Funny how the arbitrary amount of $6,000.00........

was assessed for the life of an Iraqi general (to be taken out of his pay). $6,000.00 was the original amount of life insurance paid to the beneficiaries of dead American soldiers until they raised it to $12,000.00. Don Imus raised such a stink that congress raised it to $250,000.00. Just struck me as an odd amount.
I can't believe I now live in a country where wholesale torture is sanctioned and outsourced, a slap on the wrist for murder as long as you're in the military and the death penalty is carried out on the mentally challenged in our prisons.

[Javaman]

11. Welcome to Rome. n/t