Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
There were three cases. I realsised that in two cases I could not differ between what might be media stunts that blew somehtign out of proportion, ordinary combat action being interporeted as excessivce or something like that, so I decided to abstain from an opinion on these two cases. I do not say pro and I do not say contra on these. The third however, posing with the corpus of dead enemies, is something that cannot be interpreted as combat action, but shows a severly derailed persinality (whatever the reaosn may be) or a severly derailed general set of behaviour standards and morals. And this after the images from Abu Ghraib. I say "guilty" here. Also, the miliuary justice system has been devalued severly in this case, he ran throzgh the demanded procedures and was found guilty, and then the little boy int he WH comes along and say "Ätschi-bätschi, you may say this, but I say something different." Not good. A lot of people in the JAG (is it the office responsible here? I know it only form TV series, I admit) must be pissed and feel disrespected, although I assume for a start that they did their job to their best knowledge.
Lil' Boy's arguments do not convince me. He took an opportunity to score a cheap point and fueling already burning fires. Mind you, in his thinking there is not enough room for anything more than just "I", and I have no doub that he cares #### about the reputation of these three men or about justice. That they profit from his decisions, is a side-effect that happens to be real but that he is not interested in at all. His own profit is what made him doing it. The three other men just happen to not get in his way.
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I view Abu Grahib as a serious screw up, absolutely uncalled for, no reason for it, a total breakdown of good order and discipline. However Chief Gallagher case is IMO something different. He was charged and found not guilty of war crimes. But it appears the pictures he took was looked upon by some as something unbecoming of a trained killer of his fellow man, a result of combat action. We expect him to do our dirty work and sent him overseas to a foreign land to kill another. He did what some here would outright refuse or soil themselves if confronted. He did what we asked of him but he is not some kind of robot. There will be internal conflicts, psychological damage and mental derailment. If not helped he will all on his own find a way to deal with the things he's done. IMO Trophy photos was one of those ways maybe an attempt to dehumanize those we expected him to kill by his own hand. Easy for some to judge but I think he deserves at least an ounce of respect and a ton of professional help from trained professionals and his peers. Not jail time nor condemnation for doing something we ourselves are afraid to do.