Do you suppose the people who order and carry out the "targeted assassinations" program (see yesterday's Glen Greenwald) will ever be put on trial?

I believe winning their hearts and minds works better if you leave them in their bodies.

"But he said the charges represented "an aberration" for an American force of nearly 100,000 in Afghanistan."

Bullshit. This happens in every war. Do you remember the US GI's cutting off Vietcong ears as souvenirs? Do you remember US GI's cutting off Vietcong heads and displaying them on pikes near Vietnamese villages? Do you remember Lt. Calley? Do you remember that scalping was first done to North American Natives by white European immigrants? Nothing has changed. Nothing.

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot to mention Geronimo's skull on display at, where else, Skull and Bones.

So, a few "American" soldiers killed a few innocent people and cut off their fingers. How is this any different from "pilots" ten thousand miles away killing wedding parties in Afghanistan? Just because the "pilots" don't get to cut off their heads? Remember the reports of US soldiers playing soccer with Iraqi heads?

What's any different about these latest charges? How is this any different from helicopter forces killing journalists and civilians milling about in Iraq? Oh, yeah, they didn't cut off their heads. All they did was run over their dead bodies a few times with their humvees after wounding a couple kids in a rescue van.

It is just shocking... SHOCKING, I tell you.

"Monday's hearing focuses on Specialist Jeremy Morlock, 22, of Wasila, Alaska, who faces charges of premeditated murder in the deaths of three Afghans killed between January and May this year."
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Another Morlock from Wasila! What are the odds?

First , the underlying characteristic of War is NOT dying and that people die.

The Characteristic of war and men in war is that people KILL and they do so with seeming impunity. All too often the narrative is is that "men in war" are somehow compelled to do something they do not really like doing and that to kill their fellow humans. The killer is somehow as much a "Victim" as those being killed.

I suggest people read "An Intimate History Of Killing" by Joanna Burke. Those soldiers are not VICTIMS. She goes to great lengths to expose the nasty sore under the scab.

The people pulling the tigger more often then not ENJOY what they are doing. They describe killing another as like ones "first orgasm" and the shame they feel after the fact not that hey KILLED some other person, but that they enjoyed doing so. It was a RUSH.

Killing another person is one of Societies greatest taboos and "Soldiers in War" can do so "and get away with it".

These are not just "Nice boys gone bad due to the stress of combat" These are not "Aberrations". The ugly truth the Military does not want the public to know and why they go through the motions of giving the public a perception that these are abberations and the "Bad apples" to be punished is that much like the General who suggested it was "fun to kill bad guys" there a whole lot of people in the Military who feel the same. It is like an entertainment.

If people do not believe this the case just look at the poularity of "war movies" , "Cop shows" and horror films. There a whole lot of people willing to pay money to watch people pretending to kill one another.

GWnorth you have it right all the way...it takes a certain kind of person to even want to join, but I do think many young soldiers have a view of pride for the uniform, and what that will bring him, and never really think of what killing would be like, until it's to late. Plus there is the factor that many soldiers over all of history were forced to be soldiers. In Isreal today every able body must serve two years in the military. I do agree that many just love to kill though, and joined for that purpose.

That kid being from Wasila is funny...for a small town like that, to have two famous Nuts coming from there, what are the odds ?

"The people in that area who are impacted by these alleged incidents will think differently of us as a result of that."

Ya really think so? Perhaps. But I suspect that their opinion of their country's invaders and occupiers won't actually be altered very much, except in its intensity.

On the other hand, the global scope of that intense hatred of the U.S. "for its freedoms" continues to expand apace thanks in no small measure to the so-called "defenders" of those "freedoms." Be aware, moreover, that its growth does not exclude the populaces of some erstwhile allies.

Sleep well. Their "gallant bravery", acting in your name in far-away lands, will surely protect your comfortable slumber at home -- at least to the extent that it was ever the true purpose and intent in the first place. Be sure to "support the troops" and welcome them home to your own neighborhoods and "protective agencies" whenever they return with their murderous enthusiasms augmented by actual practice -- not to mention their supplemental mercenary brethren from the private sector.

By the way it needs saying.

This "Killings" are no more "Grisly" then the ones that happen each and every day in Afghanistan and Iraq. Being blown in half by a "predator" missile flown from some Air base in Nevada is just as "Grisly".

The real problem with seperating THESE particular killings out from all those others is it gives the perception that those other murders are somehow "Clean and above board".

Those others are "acceptable".

Why is this story not headline news on MSM? Not the NYT or the Washington Post - but, coincidently, the story is on Democracy Now and Al Jazeera - hmmm. The United States military is responsible for 37,000, 3 Million, 1.2 million innocent civilian deaths in the Philipine War, Vietnam War and Iraq War respectively. They are the number one terrorist organization in the world, and the best we can do is a Calley like 'punishment' of a year in a Fort Benning barrack.

Well, of course, the only court to hold sway in international affairs is the UN International Court of Justice, which the cowardly United States refuses to participate, along with their compatriot in crime, Israel.

Is there any wonder why the Taliban will continue to fight against overwhelming forces? All they have to do is read the papers to see what kind of miscreants we have in our military and how those kind of people can be beaten - well, if they pick the good papers and medium anyway.

I doubt if the upcomming trial will eclipse the medias obsession with lindsy lohans every bowel movement, the stink of which likely resembles that emenating from mainstream septic tanks masquerading as news outlets.

Again, just as at Abu Ghraib, we see that according to the official story being sold, these crimes were planned and carried out by a group of enlisted soldiers and the immediate command structure had absolutely no idea whatsoever as to what was going on right under their noses! Bull Shit!
We have seen in this country our financial system almost collapse due to the reckless and illegal actions of some very wealthy people. We have seen very wealthy and powerful people shred our constitution and drag our country into two illegal wars. We have watched while other very wealthy and powerful people have protected these law breakers by not investigating their illegal activities! And we shall see these same people again take advantage of their power and wealth to totally destroy our society. Unless you punish the evil done by evil people, you only encourage more evil!

But nary a peep about the US Citizen executed by Israeli commandos.

This is what we get for taking in the dregs of society who have inadequate education, no job skills to function outside of the military, and are desperate "for a job" so they "join up" in our "voluntary" military. FYI, to meet their "quota" our military LOWERED their MINIMUM requirements, a few years ago, accepting people with questionable histories that prior to then they would have NEVER let in the military back in the days that they did a draft.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15197832/
(About 17 percent of the first-time recruits, or about 13,600, were accepted under waivers for various medical, moral or criminal problems, including misdemeanor arrests or drunk driving. That is a slight increase from last year, the Army said. Of those accepted under waivers, more than half were for “moral” reasons, mostly misdemeanor arrests. Thirty-eight percent were for medical reasons and 7 percent were drug and alcohol problems, including those who may have failed a drug test or acknowledged they had used drugs.)

http://www.militarytimes.com/forum/showthread.php?786-Lowered-Initial-Entry-Standards-Symptomatic-Of-Broken-Army-And-Need-For-Draft
(The Army is coddling its basic trainees as illustrated by new, easier conditioning drills, elimination of PT repetitions to muscle failure, de-emphasis of long training/fitness runs, a flaccid minimum physical fitness score of 150 out of 300 (50 points for each of 3 events) sufficient for graduation from initial entry training, the raising of the recruit age limit to 42, acceptance of known substance abusers, acceptance of recruits on medication (some for emotional disorders), limited permitted use of cell phones during initial entry training, and so on. Basic training is now so soft that drill sergeants' own PT scores drop markedly as they become less fit training recruits. Initial entry training brigade commanders are under intense pressure from the higher chain of command to keep graduation numbers up so that senior military and civilian authorities can report to politicians, who are all too eager to dupe and mislead their constituents (millions of whom have precious offspring with futures too bright to risk in military service) that the Army is meeting its recruitment, training, and retention targets. It is a systemic sham best illustrated by the fact that on 5 June 2006, at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, the initial entry training brigade commander, after flip-flopping and indecision, at the last possible moment directed that basic trainees, one company of whom were in their third day of basic training, be transported to the post stadium for the Lt. Dan Band performance. Bus transport had to be arranged hastily. I know. I was there. That decision made a mockery of traditional basic combat training. Heaven knows, we can't afford to have any hurt, 'broken', or disappointed Army basic trainees in this day and age! The stark reality is that the Army cannot recruit and retain sufficient numbers of young, healthy and strong men and women. That is demonstrated by the fact that the DOD and State Department have wasted hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of dollars maintaining approximately 30,000 high-priced 'private security contractors' (mercenaries) in Iraq and Afghanistan. The true numbers have never been revealed to the tax-paying populace, for obvious reasons. It is past time for Army senior leaders, DOD officials, members of Congress, and the present Administration to admit those facts and level with the American public. Their failure to so jeopardizes the security of a nation. It is time for a draft, with absolutely no deferments, not only for reasons of national security but also for reasons of societal equity. Let us see some policy-maker guts and candor for a change. 12-08-2006 08:31 PM #2 Unregistered Guest Re: Lowered Initial Entry Standards Symptomatic Of Broken Army And Need For Draft What do you expect. After Rumsfeld saw the video of the Iraqi conscripts begging to surrender during Gulf War I he figured all the was needed in the US Army was the ability to drive tanks, call in airstrikes and fire artillary. He had no thought that physical fitness or discipline would be needed in his new 'Pushbutton' Army. 12-08-2006 10:54 PM #3 Unregistered Guest Re Lowered Initial Entry Standards Symptomatic Of Broken Army And Need For Draft I also agree with the Marine CPT. The U.S. Army's basic training is too easy and compromised. Soldiers can't be expected to follow orders and be expected to live the Army Values if they aren't trained the way they are supposed to. Quality should be the issue and not quantity or else we have proved Sen. John Kerry right! I also believe that the Army's APFT standard is right for only soldiers of basic training. For us Resevist, Guard and Active duty, if might be too low. We have too many chubby and fat soldiers in the Army, I counted as one of them. It puts us to shame when we made fun of by Marines and shamed by the public when they see fat soldiers walking around. Finally, I believe that the Female APFT is too low of a standard. If the females in the U.S. Marines can handle thier male PT standard, so can the female in the U.S. Army. They need to have the same standard as the males do! The public expect Soldiers to be moral, disciplined, unselfish, and fit not fat. The Army's standard is too low across the board!)

After Mai Lai and the Iraqi Haditha massacres, the war criminals were allowed to 'walk' with their 'get-out-of-jail-free' cards in hand how can the Great Satan bring its current war criminals to justice.

I say, the Taliban are doing a great job by sending an expoentially growing quantity of coffins flying into Dover AFB in the wee hours of the AM as a sign of their discontent with the US/NATO baby killers.

You canot reward murderers, rapists, torturers, sodomizers and small time gangsters with 'Moral Waivers' that allow these 'scum-of-the-earth' low lives to enter the US military and overnight morph into 'patriots.'

TheAZCowBoy
Tombstone, AZ.

Go Taliban, Hamas and Hezbollah! - May your bullets and RPG-7 rockets fly straight and true!

remember how "AMERICA" was "horrified" and "Angry" when an american reporter was publicly beheaded by "terrorists" years ago? the Reporter Daniel Pearl?

it seems _ BEHIND THE SCENES "unseen" by America and the World --- AMERICAN PERSONNEL are about at least as grisly and depraved...and this coming from the "most advanced nation" that likes to go abroad to "civilize barbarians"........

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Court Hears of U.S. Unit Killing Afghan Civilians at Random
By WILLIAM YARDLEY
Published: September 27, 2010
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JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. — Members of an American Army unit consumed with drug use randomly chose Afghan civilians to kill and then failed to report the abuses out of fear they would suffer retaliation from their commander, according to testimony in military court here on Monday.
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United States Army

Corp. Jeremy Morlock
Related
The Lede Blog: Soldier Describes Killing of Afghan in Tape (September 27, 2010)
The Lede Blog: U.S. Soldier Charged in Murder of Afghans Was a Whistleblower, Father Says (September 10, 2010)

The testimony, in a hearing to determine whether one of those soldiers, Specialist Jeremy N. Morlock, would face a court-martial and a possible death sentence, came the same day that a videotape in the case was leaked showing Specialist Morlock talking to investigators about the killings in gruesome detail with no apparent emotion.

Top Army officials worry that the case against Specialist Morlock and four other soldiers accused in the killings of three Afghan civilians will undermine efforts to build relationships with Afghans in the war against the Taliban.

The soldiers are accused of possessing dismembered body parts, including fingers and a skull, and collecting photographs of dead Afghans. Some images show soldiers posing with the dead. As many as 70 images are believed to be in evidence.

Some of the soldiers have said in court documents that they were forced to participate in the killings by a supervisor, Sgt. Calvin Gibbs, who is also accused in the killings. All five defendants have said they are not guilty.

In one incident, Specialist Morlock recounted in the video, he described Sergeant Gibbs identifying for no apparent reason an Afghan civilian in a village, then directing Specialist Morlock and another soldier to fire on the man after Sergeant Gibbs lobbed a grenade in his direction.

“He kind of placed me and Winfield off over here so we had a clean line of sight for this guy and, you know, he pulled out one of his grenades, an American grenade, popped it, throws the grenade, and tells me and Winfield: ‘All right, wax this guy. Kill this guy, kill this guy,’ ” Specialist Morlock said in the video.

Referring to the Afghan, the investigator asked: “Did you see him present any weapons? Was he aggressive toward you at all?”

Specialist Morlock replied: “No, not at all. Nothing. He wasn’t a threat.”

New York Times article continued
==================================
As Monday’s hearing was getting under way, CNN and ABC News broadcast the video. In the CNN clip and the ABC clip, Specialist Morlock, speaking in a near monotone, looks like a teenager recounting a story to his parents.

CNN also broadcast video of the interview of a soldier who is not accused in the killings but has been accused of lesser crimes, Cpl. Emmitt R. Quintal.

When asked by an investigator when and how often members of the unit used illegal drugs, Corporal Quintal, seated in camouflage fatigues, said it occurred on “bad days, stressful days, days that we just needed to escape.”

The interview with Specialist Morlock was conducted in Kandahar in May, while he was en route to a medical evaluation for what his lawyers said was possibly a traumatic brain injury suffered during his deployment. They say he was taking medication prescribed by military doctors for sleep deprivation, pain and muscle stress, though they said they could not yet establish exactly when he had taken the medication and how it might have affected him.

Specialist Morlock, who grew up in Wasilla, Alaska, appeared in court on Monday but did not testify.

Michael Waddington, his lawyer, questioned Army investigators by phone from their duty station in Afghanistan. Mr. Waddington repeatedly asked whether they found Specialist Morlock to be under the influence of medication in the interviews. Some investigators described Specialist Morlock as tired and sometimes slouching, but they said he was coherent and had a strong recollection of details.

The video, provided to defense lawyers to help them prepare their cases, was not intended by the military to be made public.

“The disclosure of these video recordings is troubling because it could adversely affect the military justice process,” said Col. Tom Collins, an Army spokesman.

The power of images in the case was apparent last week, when the commander of the Stryker brigade in which the soldiers serve ordered photographic evidence to be strictly controlled by investigators at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, with access limited to lawyers.

A memo circulated by a military defense lawyer the previous week described an inadvertent release of photographs, including three that show American soldiers holding up the heads of dead Afghans. It was unclear whether all of the pictures showed soldiers in the cases, though military prosecutors said Monday that Specialist Morlock was in at least one image, apparently with a dead Afghan.

Photographic evidence could play an important role in the Army’s case, as will statements from soldiers. No bodies have been recovered, and a military investigator testified on Monday that the nature of the areas where the crimes occurred, including religious views of residents and potential danger to American soldiers, prevented them from conducting crime scene investigations.

“To exhume a body would cause a lot of issues, even if it was for a good purpose,” said Special Agent Anderson D. Wagner.

Mr. Wagner noted that at least two statements, from Specialist Morlock and another soldier charged, Pfc. Adam C. Winfield, corroborated elements of each other’s story. He also said there was little physical evidence connecting the soldiers to the killings. “I don’t know the final thing that killed those guys, whether it was a bullet or whose grenade it was,” Mr. Wagner said.

The Army’s case is complicated by claims that it ignored warnings that there was trouble in the unit. Private Winfield’s father has said he repeatedly tried to alert military officials that his son had told him through Facebook in February that a murder was committed by members of his unit in January. The soldiers are accused of killings in January, February and May.

Mr. Waddington said in an interview that his client was present where the three crimes are said to have taken place, but that he had not killed anyone.

Mr. Wagner, the investigator, said that during his interview in May, Specialist Morlock had feared retaliation for talking.

Lawyers for Specialist Morlock told reporters during a break that the case reflected a “failed policy” in Afghanistan, and that soldiers like Specialist Morlock should never have been allowed to continue with their unit given the medication they say he was on and the alleged widespread use of drugs in the unit. Seven other soldiers in the unit are accused of other crimes, including hashish possession.

It could be weeks before the military investigator presiding over the hearing, Judge Thomas Molloy, determines how to charge Specialist Morlock.

Elisabeth Bumiller contributed reporting from Washington.