Army reservists' families say soldiers charged in Iraq were targeted unfairly

Relatives of four Army reservists from Pennsylvania who are accused of beating and abusing Iraqi prisoners say they fear their loved ones are targets of a vendetta.

The four U.S. soldiers accused of abusing prisoners of war include, clockwise from top left, Sgt. Timothy Canjar, Master Sgt. Lisa Marie Girman, Staff Sgt. Scott A. McKenzie and Sgt. Shawna L. Edmondson.

They've got a good plausible defense in trying to restrain POWs that are attacking them. Looks like whoever was in the "other unit" that reported them very well could have arrived at the location a bit late and only saw these 4 trying to regain control of a crappy situation.

I can imagine how some officers don't like NCO's telling them something is wrong with things, and doubly not liking the idea of those NCO's being local cops back home and knowing more than they do about handling prisoners.

How many dud officers have we all seen in our military days. Heck they used to send us dog handlers out in the monsoon rains, with heavy strong winds to go on patrol. Even the Army knew that you couldn't work a dog in those weather conditions, because the rain and wind would remove the scent of a man from the air or localize it to a very small area. But our officers didn't know and didn't care, they just wanted to say we were out there.

Ever try to patrol with a dog in a typhoon? Can't be done.

These 4 didn't make their present day rank by being incompetent, someone in command better straighten this mess out real fast!

"McKenzie complained about a colonel who lost his gun, a major intoxicated in front of her troops and a major's inadvertent release of a prisoner on the most-wanted list..."

Sounds like a colonel, and two majors would want to deflect the attention from themselves and onto someone else, and these 4 reservists are the fall guys.

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