DURHAM DISPATCH : Military Injustice
Posted on Thursday, August 28, 2008
Ever since the invasion of Iraq I have ranted and raged about the way our Troopies are treated. Sending them into a war without full TO & E (Table of Organization and Equipment ) and untrained for urban guerilla warfare was criminal. I bitterly wrote columns about our people being tried by Courts-Martial for killing the enemy. Yes, there are instances when killings are unjustified and it is justice to try the accused. But in many instances Troopies were charged for acts that came under the heading of Trying To Survive. That's an activity very dear to the hearts of our Troopies. "To hell with John Wayne and Rambo. I want to survive."
I was bitter when I read the headline," Soldiers Face Tribunal Over Iraq Deaths. "Four soldiers of the 173 rd Infantry Brigade were facing a tribunal to determine if they should be tried by Courts-Martial for killing prisoners. (In Vietnam over 30 years ago the 173 rd Airborne fought gallantly at Dak To. ) Maybe the charges are justified. I don't know as I wasn't there. The hearing is because of allegations that the four Troopies killed "detainees... of apparent Middle Eastern descent"between March 10 and April 16, 2007. It seems rather strange that the incident occurred over a month-long period more than a year ago. I also find it curious that the detainees were of "apparent"Middle Eastern descent. We're not fighting the Chinese !
Readers will recall that I've written columns about the so-called security guards who are actually mercenaries in Iraq, like Blackwater Worldwide. As they tell of the latest in a long line of incidents, some of them were riding shotgun for dignitaries in Baghdad when they responded to the explosion of an IED in Nisoor Square. They were then ambushed and returned fire, killing 17 Iraqi civilians. The Iraqis present said there was no enemy fire and the guards' attack was unprovoked. The Iraqi government demanded that Blackwater leave the country. They are still there. It seems they are under the State Department and no one, not even the Iraqi government, had any authority over them. They could do as they pleased with no control or accountability for actions committed by the Blackwater people.
That has supposedly changed. The Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act was written in 2000 and amended in 2004 with the intent to prosecute civilian contractors who commit crimes while working for the US overseas. One of the bill's authors said that prosecuting former Troopies was "not the motivation. "Under the UCMJ (The Universal Code of Military Justice ) former military personnel (veterans ) cannot be prosecuted by a military court. The law was passed in order to fill in a loop-hole that was letting the mercenaries in Blackwater, Dyncorp, and others get away with murder. Six have received target letters, which means there is a high likelihood that some may be indicted for the killings at Nisoor Square. ' Bout time.
But there has surfaced another problem. And, oh, this is just brilliant !. The law also allows the government to prosecute military dependents and veterans for actions they committed outside the United States. A law professor at Duke University-who is also the Executive Director of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security-said that the law has little to do with decisions made while serving, but with whether a Troopie has committed a crime. "From a legal point of view, there is no difference in law between war and peace. "The law may be indifferent, but to our Warfighters it's not.
Former Marine Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario Jr. is facing trial by a civilian court for voluntary manslaughter for killing four unarmed civilians during the Battle For Fallujah in 2004. The unit was in some fierce fighting, taking and returning fire from a house. They took the position. There were some men in the house. Nazario and his squad disarmed and detained the men then he radioed his commander who asked if the detainees were dead yet. When Nazario told him," No," the commander told him," make it happen. "Nazario is the recipient of the Navy-Marine Commendation with "V"for valor for his fighting and leadership in the battle. Now he is facing 10 years in prison for doing what he was trained to do. Perhaps alive the detainees were still capable of fighting later and so, from a military point of view, needed to be eliminated.
Civilian juries are going be to second guessing our Troopies on life and death decisions when they were doing what they were trained to do. There is a group called Iraq Veterans Against The War. I watched some of their testimony. Heavy. One vet said he would fight for America's freedoms but not Iraq's. They made sense but none of them are going to be telling about events that in combat are acts of survival. If not tried by the Military, they can now be tried by Civil Courts.
Worse by far is that now our Troopies are going to be up the creek for thinking," Should I shoot or not ? "Taking time to think like that will get you very dead very quickly.
Question authority. It's the American way.
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