US marine to face trial over Iraq killings

US marine to face trial over Iraq killings

news.bbc.co.uk

A US marine is to go on trial over the killing of 24 men, women and children in the Iraqi town of Haditha in 2005.

The trial of Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich will go ahead after a military judge in California refused to dismiss the charges.

Sgt Wuterich is one of eight marines originally charged with murder or failure to investigate the killings.

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A development in this story. Staff Sgt Frank Wuterich will have to face trial after a court dismissed the motion to drop the charges.

I always thought that the first rule of war is that there are no rules... Isn't this how the IDF operates? Why aren't IDF members being charged with unlawful killings? With illegal use of restricted weapons (white phosphorous)?



Keeping the peace,

Magnum

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

I can't speak for the Israelis, but I for one am glad that jurisprudence within the U.S. military isn't entirely dead. Me-Lai massacres need to be dealt with, and harshly. War is hell. The toll it takes on a soldier's mind as well as his body, especially in conflicts few understand, and fewer still support, is more than many of us could stand without snapping. That not withstanding, the soldier's actions, however driven by psychological madness, are things that he must be held accountable for - moreso when it involves the purported slaughter of civilians. I feel a great swell of pity for those Iraqis, as I do any soldier that feels driven to do such.

I may get flamed for supporting "baby killers," but if found guilty and PTSD is to blame, perhaps the young man can get the care he needs to undo the damage that a war without end inflicts.

If however, he's found guilty and considered of sound mind, then well, Leavenworth can be a hell on Earth where firing squads still haven't gone out of favor.

"It's important because 24 people are dead. It's the greatest number of non-combat victims in a single incident that wasn't a bomb."

That 24 people are dead, 11 of whom were women and children, remains undisputed.

The basically gunned down 24 people because they went crazy after a road side bomb exploded.


You know, sometimes when people get really upset about their job, or wife cheating, or something of that nature, they get mad and kill people. Those people are called murders, but in war they are heros.