Posted on 02/08/2003 10:11:24 AM PST by Clive
A Canadian sniper up for the Bronze Star medal for his combat role in Afghanistan has been cleared of allegations he desecrated the body of a dead al-Qaeda fighter, the Defence Department said yesterday.
Military investigators lacked evidence for charges against Master Corporal Arron Perry and another Canadian, following allegations soldiers cut the finger off an enemy combatant and staged a "trophy" photo of the body.
The investigation also examined claims a soldier defecated on a second body. Master Cpl. Perry had been suspended pending the outcome of the probe, but was returned to duty yesterday in Edmonton.
"After a thorough investigation by the National Investigation Service, the evidence wasn't sufficient to support charges in that case," said Captain Mark Giles, a Department of National Defence public affairs officer.
Master Cpl. Perry, a member of Edmonton's 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, said he was relieved the investigation had concluded.
"I'm glad finally it's done," he said.
The sniper was part of a small group of Canadian soldiers who directly engaged the Taliban and al-Qaeda during a tour in Afghanistan. He has been credited with helping save soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division pinned down by enemy fire in Shah-i-Kot Valley.
The Canadians' sharp-shooting on al-Qaeda machine-gun nests and mortar positions were chronicled in Soldier of Fortune magazine. U.S. commanders have since recommended the snipers for Bronze Stars recognizing heroic or meritorious service.
But a few weeks after that triumph, Master Cpl. Perry was sent home under a cloud of suspicion. Allegations surfaced in mid-March that he had interfered with a body and there were reports of a photograph showing a dead enemy fighter with a cigarette in his mouth and a small sign on his chest reading "f--k terrorism."
But the investigation centred on claims a soldier had taken a finger from the body.
"The photos, while being perhaps inappropriate, that was not the main focus of the investigation. The main focus was the allegations of interfering with the dead body," Cpt. Giles said. "It's as much moral as it is legal. We always want dead bodies, whether they be enemy or friendly, to be treated with dignity."
Military investigators dug up the corpse and searched tents at the Canadian military base, seizing a knife. DNA tests were conducted to see if the knife could be tied to the body, but no link was established.
The only shame brought on any unit is largely the result of those who fabricate stories and accuse innocent soldiers like MCpl Perry.
BTW, why aren't you serving in the military?
It doesn't work, because people like yourself, and Perry, and Calley, end up making on-the-spot decisions about who is a 'terrorist.'
No, it's not unthinkable.
But I am not going to let a theoretical decide the way I conduct myself. For starters, unlike yourself, I wouldn't give the enemy the satisfaction of thinking they had me rattled.
These guys are what we have takin' for granted over our life time. The fighting soldier in the field sees things, experience things that you or I could not even get close to deeply entrenched in a Tom Clancy novel. Who are we to judge these individuals? Who are you to judge these individuals?
This may not sit right with the fence sitters around here, but short of pillage, rape and murder, I salute them and pray in silence for for them. For they are the reason we are the way we are. They are the reason we are able to be the way we are.
Over the years here at FR I am continually irritated at the self righteous. They come and it is their views who rein supreme. I think that is a bigger crime than lobbing off a finger, or taking a crap on a dead enemys' head. Though, natuarally you won't agree...
JMHO
SR
Uh huh.
Perry wasn't on the battlefield. What he did happened later, when the battlefield was secured.
But since you're about the tenth poster to try and confuse with that one, let me ask you something : is it okay, to cut fingers off the dead, if you're on a battlefield? I would have thought there might be more important demands on your time.
Pete, we lost the Vietnam War. One of the innumerable reasons has got to be the Perry mentality. Unless all Christian morality is stripped from our culture we will never be able to out-terrorise the enemy. We will instead become the enemy.
Did you become the enemy, Pete?
I suspect most of the posters here are in agreement that we have a common enemy.
We're also probably agree that it's in his best interest to see us bickering amongst ourselves while he targets us.
Just as in the grunts, there's considerable difference in how men fight and what drives their loyalty.
Some guys fight for this band of brothers stuff,..others fight out of national patriotism,....some fight out of duty and devotion to God,...some fight out a glandular infatuation. Perhaps this thread displays it more than most.
Here's where I hold school on some basics for those greenhorns who might get more impressed with their glands than with the consequences of living.
When you go into combat, you have a job to do. Just like a hand works on one fashion, the ankle in another, it takes the whole body to win the battle and battles need to be won to win the war. If they aren't won to lead a lasting will, the war will be for nothing.
When a man is killed, his soul, spirit, that something immaterial which actually distinguishes him from dust, departs the body. The thing that departs the body upon physical death, is the same darned thing that drives the conflict in warfare.
The person being fought might command and control his body to take actions to kill you, so he has to be opposed, sometimes by physical force, deadly force, which results in his soul leaving his body.
That's death.
The separation of soul/spirit from the body.
It's been known since Adam. In the Hebrew, death means separation,...sometimes applied as man from God others as life from the body,...that is death.
Some kid who plays with the body or believes torture of the body is the objective of combat, has simply been used as material fodder to advance somebody else's agenda. He might do it out of his own curiousity, but that immediately telegraphs that he's fighting for something material rather than for principle.
In organized warfare, that might be required to fight as a unit, but never should one become more preoccupied with death than with controlling the enemy. That might imply death, it might imply targeting the enemy for destruction and death, but once dead, the body is simply another material lump.
Infatuation with that lump of dirt, the body, after death is frequently performed by those who don't comprehend life. They become infatuated with the body, instead of obedience to righteousness and controlling their will.
This is one of those little truisms, like units that leave trash in their fighting positions are undisciplined in combat,...or those who fail in immediate obedience to orders will suffer on the battlefield....or in this case,,...somebody who tortures animals will also display lack of respect for their fellow man,...those who gossip about their peers will gossip about and stab their friends in the back. In this case, any inkling of desecrating a body, crapping on it, photographing it with little signs on it,...is indicative that somebody has the maturity level of a third grader and isn't to be trusted in affairs requiring manly maturity. I.e. don't trust him with an M-60 as your base of fire, ...don't trust him as point man,...he's not in the right place.
Now another point. In combat, just as in life, when placed in a high stress, high risk position, you're likely to be tempted.
You'll first get tempted with thoughts. before any action. Same with all life. Consequence in combat, is that one needs their full attention dedicated to insuring an immediate reaction to the first indication of battle, time may equate to lost lives.
Doubt on the credibility of fellow service men in their capacity and assigned duties will lead to doubt and temptations during combat to question one's actual resources and cause unnecessary internal conflict.
The lesson is not to get involved with that sort of behavior. Recognize what one's fighting for and don't cause dissension. Yes there are rules against desecration.
After the battle, one might search for intel/information, being wary of boobytraps, but that's not the same as pillaging and foraging for valuables.
David may have decapitated Goliath to show the enemy had been killed. We probably should have decapitated Osama bin laden to show the world he was dead,..but not out of macabre desecration.
In this upsoming war, more than many in our recent past, good and evil are going at odds against one another. Those who don't understand good and evil are going to get misled by those who are evil rendering appearances of human good. Those who are righteous in one area, are going to be demonized by other areas by human dogooders. Even amongst those who are evil, there is going to be confusion between discernment of cause and every lust imaginable.
America is going to get targetted and I suspect in not all the evil places.
If somebody doesn't know Scripture or hasn't read the Bible once,...you need to pick it up and read it while you have the chance to learn in peace how to discern good from evil.
Our threats are not merely external, but many internal, domestic enemies of the Constitution lay in wait. Cover your six and let's cover each others'.
Semper Fi.
Only if the nice looking ring won't come off easily...
Good one, Swarthy.
I prefer this honest up front ugliness, to the posts where you pretend to rationalise.
You ignorance is absolutely stunning,and your stupidity outshines it. Now you are equating me and Cpl Perry with a convicted murderer? Where the hell is your sense of balance? Are you on drugs? Has somebody logged in as you and are posting in your name? Seriously. You've been around a long time and are usually reasonable,and you are totally in another solar system with this nonsense. You wouldn't know a terrorist if one bit you on the ass,yet you want to preach to those of us who HAVE fought against and killed terrorists and guerillas how to conduct ourselves?
I can only conclude this foolishness is based on either you or a loved one being a Muslim. Which is it?
a) apologise, or
b)STFU.
Going on the article, he wasn't cleared. There was a lot of evidence against him, but (and I assume the US pro-perp justice system was a factor) not enough for a trial. Perhaps the technical term might be, 'offence not proved.'
But in general, yes, it's okay, to draw an opinion from published articles and argue a view based on that. I have an enormous respect and gratitude for the military, but I don't deify individual soldiers, the way some do here.
No, of course not.
I'm saying that when soldiers make up their own rules in the field you're going to have problems. That's why we have a code.
OK,which was it? He either wasn't on a battlefield,or the battlefield had been "secured". Or at least what passes for "secured" in those mountains.
But since you're about the tenth poster to try and confuse with that one, let me ask you something
You are the one who is confused. I've know what battlefields are,and have been on them. You haven't.
: is it okay, to cut fingers off the dead, if you're on a battlefield?
No,but on the other hand (pun intended),it surely doesn't hurt them.
I never did that. See clarification, above.
Hope you don't have to sit through another 300 posts for your next cheap shot from the sideline.
No,we didn't. We just quit fighting because the politicans were taking too much heat over it. We had the war won right after Tet of 1968,but the politicians threw it away. What we "lost" is what our politicians never had,the will to win.
Unless all Christian morality is stripped from our culture
Blah,blah,big ranger in the sky,blah.
Arguing a view based on published articles might be fine for a college class, but it is unacceptable by Western judicial standards.
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