The Daily Mail is hardly liberal. Besides, one of the soldiers has already pleaded guilty and is testifying against the others. I don’t think there is much room to claim that they are being railroaded here. Even if the civilians were collateral damage, they’d still deserve to get thrown in jail for posing for pics with shit eating grins on their faces with the corpses.
As other people have said, this kind of thing puts other soldiers in danger by inflaming local opinion...
I'd be interested in seeing the "deal" he was offered for his testimony.
Even if the civilians were collateral damage...
I'm not convinced they were civilians... yet. Everyone I have talked to, and everything I have seen leads me to believe that it is very difficult to determine insurgent fighters from civilians.
During my time in Gulf I in 1991, we took many, many EPWs who were dressed in civilian clothes, but were definitely enemy combatants. In some locations, flip-flops and sweatsuits were nearly as common as military uniforms.
I will ALWAYS give an American soldier the benefit of the doubt until he has been judged guilty by a military court. I have a higher opinion of, and more trust in the American Soldier than I do of ANY press, foreign or domestic.
I'll wait for the verdict, thanks.