WAR: US Soldiers and Mercy Killing, page 1

There are now three instances reported where soldiers have been or are being charged for making a judgment call and killing severely wounded Iraqis. One has pleaded guilty and received jail time, while a second has just been convicted for the same incident and was sentenced to jail time. A third soldier has a hearing pending in a separate incident.

start.earthlink.net
Witnesses say U.S. soldiers found the teenager in a burning truck apparently set alight by fighting.

The Americans decided severe burns and abdominal wounds put the teenager beyond help and that "the best course of action was to put (the victim) out of his misery," a criminal investigator has said.

A judge convicted Alban of murder and conspiracy to commit murder during a one-day hearing Friday in Baghdad, the military said in a statement. He was sentenced to one year's confinement, demotion to private, and a bad-conduct discharge.

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I personally do not believe in mercy killing of human beings. However I find it disturbing that these soldiers are finding themselves in this position. They obviously have not been properly trained to deal with these incidents.

I don't know how anyone makes a judgment call that someone is beyond hope, but in both instances it seems the soldiers acted under the belief that they were doing the right thing for a person mortally wounded. They probably were not able to walk away from what they were witnessing and were unable to help. While we can't condone this, certainly these soldiers should have been prepared for situations like this and known a protocol that would not have put them behind bars.

[edit on 18-1-2005 by Banshee]