The Band of Brothers Unravels

[underpants]

Soldier Accused of Civilian Murders Defends Actions

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/IraqCoverage/story?id=2265742&page=1

Aug. 2, 2006 — Twenty-two year old Pfc. Corey Clagett believed that the matter had been resolved. After two internal inquiries evaluating a mission that took place in northern Iraq on May 9 this year, he and three other soldiers from the 3rd Battalion of the 101st Airborne Division expected to return to their duties without a stain on their characters.

Speaking by telephone from his prison cell, in an exclusive interview with Nightline, Clagett defended his actions and expressed anger towards the military for pressing charges against him.

The transition has been all the more astounding when it emerged that his accusers had come not from the Iraqi populace but from his own battalion - the tightly-knit and fiercely-loyal 'band of brothers.'

Clagett, along with Sgt. Raymond Girouard and Spc. William Hunsaker — all members of the Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 3rd Battalion — have been accused of deliberately releasing three Iraqi men they had captured, in order to kill them. Another soldier, Spc. Juston Graber, has admitted to carrying out the "mercy killing" of one of the detainees after the initial shooting.

-WHAT FOLLOWS IS NOT MEANT (by me) AS A DAMNATION NOR AS AN EXCUSE-

Think about being dropped into this world for a second

Three of the accused soldiers, along with others in the unit, then make a remarkable claim in their sworn affidavits. They say they received unusual but unequivocal rules of engagement (ROE) for the task ahead. They claim that they were given repeatedand explicit orders to "kill all military-age males."

[Kire]

1. What the hell?

Nobody's ever heard of a POW anymore?

[me b zola]

10. "War of attrition"---where have we seen that before?

or another, possibly more apt phrase would be "ethnic cleansing".

Both are crimes.

[Monkeyman]

2. Please don't call them band of brothers

We who served with the 101st disowned these lowlife's

[underpants]

4. LBN rules you know

that is the headline

:shrug:

My opinions on this matter are here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1801312&mesg_id=1801312

[Mandate My Ass]

3. Bad apples. Gotta protect Rummy, the torture director

and war criminal. I'm not defending or damning them either. I wish they had disobeyed but the fact is I believe them because too much has come out to support that all the crimes were not just sanctioned, but were explicitly ordered. I bet this goes right down the memory hole with Abu Ghraib.

[SoCalDem]

5. Your "all-volunteer" service in action.. LOTS of wackos

just love the idea for being handed a gun and getting to kill people legally.. MOST people are NOT like this, but the fact that the military is desperate to accept as many people as possible, makes it a perfect place for this type of person to be.

My guess is that people who flunk out of the police/sheriff/highway patrol/fire academies(because of the psychological testing) would gravitate towards the military...

These adrenaline junkies look at the military to get the training needed so they can join up with DynaCorps/Blackwater and make the "big bucks"..

[booley]

9. I don't think it's that at all

Yes, what these men did is vile and even sociopathic.

But war itself is sociopathic. People obey what they percive a sa "higher power' who they might not have even met to justify killing untold numbers of people they have also never met nor are necessarily a threat to them.

And that's true of any military.

But somehow I think we would have noticed if there were hundreds of millions of socipaths runnign around. and the odds that all these sociopaths just happened to join the afrmed forces of thier respective countries?

No, these people were made, not born. Made into just the way the Pentagon needed them be.

[SoCalDem]

11. That's true, BUT military life appeals to a lot of the sociopaths

who would like the opportunity to kill... What other "occupation" would attract these people? (Legal occupations)..

Probably 99.9 percent of people in the military are NOT like this, but the remaining ones who do this sort of thing cast a shadow over all of them :(

[skypilot]

6. "...using women and children as human shields."

Eventually they came upon a house where a man was looking out of the window. He was shot immediately. They then advanced to a second property where they found three men hiding, using women and children as human shields.

It's interesting how casually they throw in that "human shield" claim. Is it possible that the men were simply hiding with women and children and not actually using them?

[atreides1]

7. Obeying an illegal order

Is still a criminal act!!!!!

[dave123williams]

8. Yeah, but this means they're going down swinging.

They're not supposed to obey illegal orders, but the point remains; they were given illegal orders.

[Recursion]

12. Yes, but an order (if it can be substantiated) changes a *lot*

First off, it's a *tremendous* mitigating factor for sentencing. Secondly, it can put the accused in a position to trade some leniancy for their testimony against those who gave the order. Finally, in some cases a soldier can plead duress for following an illegal order, particularly if he or she then reports the incident (which it appears these guys did not).

The "mercy killing" angle is a different matter; the law on that is frankly unclear and has been for centuries, though the US military is very clear that a soldier is generally not qualified to determine if a wounded person has any chance of survival.

[underpants]

13. About "illegal orders"

When I was in the Army (90-93) we were told repeatedly "you have to follow the order THEN you can complain about it" well being the dumbasses that we were we thought that was the deal.

Now, recently I have read all kinds of comments here and elsewhere about how soldiers don't have to do this or that.... uh let's see I am in a pre-op briefing with my "band of brothers" or just an ordinairy platoon/squad and *I* stand up and tell the Lt. that that is an illegal order and that *I* don't have to follow it??? Sounds great but where is this mythical soldier supposed to sleep that night? How well do you think that is going to go over in his highspeed Hoowah unit? Doesn't being in such a unit greatly diminish the chances of there being the standsup sniffing pushes glasses back on his nose and says "Excuse me Sir but according to regulation.... " type even being there?

I am so sick of hearing about what people would do IF they were there. I know there is a basis for this but please.

Again this is not meant as an excuse.