A Beast in the Heart of Every Fighting Man (NY Times on our "Deviant" Afghan Troops)

New York Times ^ | April 27, 2011 | LUKE MOGELSON

[Second Amendment First]

Last May, in the small village of Qualaday in western Kandahar Province, a young Army lieutenant and his sergeants met with several elders to discuss the recent killing of a local mullah. The desert heat was fierce, and the elders led the soldiers across their village to sit under the shade of nearby trees. Three days had passed since they were last there; during that interval the place appeared to have been abandoned. When they sat down, some of the soldiers removed their helmets, and a few elders their sandals and turbans. A freelance photographer was permitted to make an audio recording of the discussion. The lieutenant wanted to know where everyone had gone. One elder explained: People left because they were afraid.

“Ask them, ‘Do they understand why we shot this dude?’ ” the lieutenant told his interpreter. During their last patrol to Qualaday, soldiers in the platoon had attacked Mullah Allah Dad with rifles and a fragmentation grenade that blew off the lower halves of his legs and badly disfigured his face. The soldiers claimed that Allah Dad was trying to throw a grenade at them. Two days after the killing, however, a company commander attended a council during which the district leader announced that people believed the incident had been staged and that the Americans had planted the grenade in order to justify a murder.

“Tell them it’s important that not only the people in this village know, but the people in surrounding villages know, that this guy was shot because he took an aggressive action against coalition forces,” the lieutenant told his interpreter. “We didn’t just [expletive] come over and just shoot him randomly. We don’t do that.”

[Second Amendment First]

Among the witnesses who testified that day was Stjepan Mestrovic, a sociologist who specializes in war crimes. Mestrovic was allowed to study an internal 500-page inquiry into the Fifth Stryker Brigade’s “command climate,” the purpose of which was to assess whether shortcomings in leadership might be partly to blame for the murders, and to identify any officers who should be held to account. In court, Mestrovic said he was shocked by how dysfunctional the brigade appeared to have been, and he added, “In a dysfunctional unit, we cannot predict who will be the deviant — but we can predict deviance.”

[Trailerpark Badass]

[Jack Hammer]

A bit difficult to see such dreck written about our Marines in the World War II Pacific Theater; but, then, we had decided to win that one.

Now, of course, our press corps is invariably rooting for the other side.

[NWFLConservative]

From someone who has been in these soldier's shoes more times than I have hairs on my a**, you take NOTHING for granted. Although all my tours were in Kuwait (DS) and Iraq and not Shitcanistan, I learned very early on that HESITATION KILLS. Something that none of these America and military hating "journalists" could possibly ever understand.

After a 19 year old SPC in my company got blown up by an insurgent who was playing dead and, after he walked by, rolled over and let the spoon fly on a grenade, killing him and wounding two others, I instructed my soldiers to double tap any insurgent who they had any doubts whatsoever was not already dead. And I mean brains or half their innards all over the ground dead. If you did not adopt the philosophy "it's either you or me and it's not going to be me, pal" right from the outset you ran a very good chance of going home to your family in a flag draped aluminum box.

I for one give these soldiers every benefit of the doubt.

[Second Amendment First]

Thank you for your service, and welcome to FreeRepublic.

[Emperor Palpatine]

[ExTxMarine]

Thank you for your service, and welcome.

I too agree with you. I did my time in Panama and the 1st Gulf War - I saw way too many "dead" tanks come to life that nearly split my unit in two! After that, we tapped every vehicle we passed - just to make sure!

Every person who goes through military boot camp is trained - him or me!

[glorgau]

I instructed my soldiers to double tap any insurgent who they had any doubts whatsoever was not already dead.

Zombieland Rule #2

[NWFLConservative]

Amen to that! Ammunition is cheap; the lives of American servicemen (and women to be politically correct) are priceless.

[Tzimisce]

The Slimes: always the first to blame the US and it’s military.

Always the last to blame socialists, marxists and muslims.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

BRAVO ZULU to both of you.

I’m still not convinced that the NYSlime and their little buddies weren’t directly responsible for more of our casualties in ‘Nam than the NVA, VC and Red Army combined, and absolutely nothing about that situation has changed except the date, location and opposition.

Nice to know they’re consistent, anyway. (/mega sarc)

I wish we could pass that Word along officially, instead of having to relearn it in blood if too many Old Hands have retired, so maybe some of us should ask if they’d have a bunch of Grandpa Warmongers back for some seminars. (Don’t bother inviting Press or JAG types, I’m allergic and tend to break out in 45ACP.)

[NWFLConservative]

And don’t forget that communist bastard Wally Cronkite (may he forever burn in hell for the soldiers he got killed) declaring the war “unwinnable” after we bombed the place flat during Linebacker (I think it was). Giap was ready to come back to the Paris Peace Talks but decided against it because Wally’s comment told him the American people no longer supported the war and they would have as much of a role in our losing as did the VC.

[Future Snake Eater]

Good advice, but that’s not what happened in 2-1 IN. These guys were flat out murdering psychopaths.

I did a tour in Iraq myself during the height of insanity, and when it’s time to get it on, then get it on. Otherwise, it’s on you, the heavily armed, well-trained, body-armored Soldier to exercise restraint until the time comes to use force. These clowns used deadly force for fun, then chopped off body parts for trophies.

Those individuals’ actions are indefensible, period.

[Unrepentant VN Vet]

Cronkite’s one of many reasons why I say I’m allergic to the entire profession.

...and that’s coming from somebody who was in deep contemplation for months before enrolling in Engineering instead of J School.

[TheOldLady]

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Lazamataz is fading away!

[NWFLConservative]

You’ll get no argument for me. Taking trophies (body parts)off dead enemy is just plain evil. I did snatch a Beretta .380 with the Republican Guard emblem stamped on it, but would never in my wildest dreams think of doing something like cutting off an ear, finger, etc.