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US soldier gets 12 1/2 years in detainee death

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posted on May, 25 2011 @ 11:23 PM
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US soldier gets 12 1/2 years in detainee death


www.huffingtonpost.com

FORT CARSON, Colo. — A U.S. soldier with mental health problems was sentenced Wednesday to 12 1/2 years in military prison after pleading guilty to premeditated murder for killing a suspected Taliban prisoner in his jail cell.

Pfc. David Lawrence told the judge he shot the prisoner – described by Army officials as a suspected Taliban commander – because he believed he had a hand in killing a chaplain whom Lawrence loved and admired.

"He killed my chaplain, so I killed him, sir," Lawrence told.
(visit the link for the full news article)



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posted on May, 25 2011 @ 11:23 PM
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I believe that he should be charged for this in my opinion. As per Geneva convention, you are not allowed to shoot POWs as they transferred their status from being a combatants to a non-combatants. AS bad the Taliban is, you're not allowed to shoot any POWs. If any coalition soldiers do this a lot, that mean we are no better to what the Japanese did to their POWs in WW2.

What do you guys think about this decision?

www.huffingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on May, 25 2011 @ 11:40 PM
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reply to post by Paulioetc15
 


well Im gonna come out and be the person who gets flamed. The Geneva convention only pretains to treatment of uniform army.



posted on May, 25 2011 @ 11:50 PM
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Well if he had mental problems what was he doing in the military, where one often has access to weapons? That must mean he was at least reasonably functional, and not appearing to be unstable. This always makes me think, cases like this I mean...Because if someone commits a crime and knows it is wrong, but they have some type of mental illness, what should happen to them? What if they did not know it is wrong?

If they knew it was wrong and did it anyway, but they only knew it was wrong because others have told them that it was wrong, not because they felt like it was wrong, what should happen to them?

Just makes me think, and this is why extensive psychological evaluations are the only real way to get to the bottom of the all-encompassed truth.



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 12:23 AM
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Originally posted by 4Starlight2Decay0
reply to post by Paulioetc15
 


well Im gonna come out and be the person who gets flamed. The Geneva convention only pretains to treatment of uniform army.


No i don't mind anyone source for this? for any rules of or any treatment of POWs?Thanks!



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 12:59 AM
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reply to post by Paulioetc15
 


Correction, he was not a prisoner of war, he was a suspect.



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 01:05 AM
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reply to post by Paulioetc15
 


My father was a POW in Auschwitz for a while then sent to a potatoe farm. He prayed one night that if God would get him home, he would serve him the rest of his life and he got a Dr. in Theology and was a great Minister. It is bad enough that we have had a President condon torture, because you can bet it will happen to our to our children in the Military and that terrorfies me.

I am glad they didn't just try to cover this up. And no matter who the enemy is that is cold blooded murder. And I sure wouldn't want that to happen to my little Army Paratrooper Granddaughter.



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 01:46 AM
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reply to post by Paulioetc15
 


Whether the man was guilty or not, the fact is the US has an uphill battle on this Earth in showing it's "civil" considerations to other people and nations, that they are not the global bully the rest of the world believes them to be. I was sure at one point the US' mantra was about winning the "hearts and minds" of the people of the lands they are occupying.

And acts like this certainly don't help. Granted the soldier may have been mentally ill, but the fact remains this will be used against them.

It takes only one "unjust" act to undo the other hundred civil and just acts.



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 01:57 AM
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reply to post by Paulioetc15
 


The Army failed him, plain and simple. He should have been taken out of combat status and re-evaluated, esp when he stated he was hearing voices.
Unfortunately, with his dishonorable discharge, he may never get the help he needs.



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 02:48 AM
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Federal minumum for manslaughter. Justice has been served. Proof that even detainees always and forever will have the right to basic human freedoms like not being killed, be subjected to harsh interrogation and torture.
edit on 26-5-2011 by TheImmaculateD1 because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 03:24 AM
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He should be freed immediately.

It is so heartbreaking to see the foot-soldiers pay the price for the fervor of politicians, and the wishes of almost an entire nation.

First put Bush on trial - the media, the vengeful nation and the top guys.

Still today people who just acted on orders (real or ideologically implied) are rotting in SA's prisons.

The leaders now deny they are in any way responsible, and both the terrorist ANC (it was in the top 10 CIA terrorist groups) and the Apartheid leaders did deals, where neither of them was responsible for anything.

Poor, poor brainwashed soldiers.
Poor, poor abandoned soldiers.

Those who should suffer part of your punishment are laughing.
And so the cookie crumbles.

Will the soldiers ever learn?
Don't believe anything.
Don't see anything.
Don't hear anything.

Those unfortunate men in their cages.
Young boys and men ...
When America hated the Dixie Chicks for criticizing Bush.
When propaganda was everywhere ...
When missiles had personal messages from 9/11 victims ...
When preachers said the Taliban were Satan.

Now those boys must go and sit in hell for your collective psychosis ...
No it breaks my heart.

Freedom at once!



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 03:29 AM
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Originally posted by halfoldman
He should be freed immediately.

It is so heartbreaking to see the foot-soldiers pay the price for the fervor of politicians, and the wishes of almost an entire nation.

First put Bush on trial - the media, the vengeful nation and the top guys.

Still today people who just acted on orders (real or ideologically implied) are rotting in SA's prisons.

The leaders now deny they are in any way responsible, and both the terrorist ANC (it was in the top 10 CIA terrorist groups) and the Apartheid leaders did deals, where neither of them was responsible for anything.

Poor, poor brainwashed soldiers.
Poor, poor abandoned soldiers.

Those who should suffer part of your punishment are laughing.
And so the cookie crumbles.

Will the soldiers ever learn?
Don't believe anything.
Don't see anything.
Don't hear anything.

Those unfortunate men in their cages.
Young boys and men ...
When America hated the Dixie Chicks for criticizing Bush.
When propaganda was everywhere ...
When missiles had personal messages from 9/11 victims ...
When preachers said the Taliban were Satan.

Now those boys must go and sit in hell for your collective psychosis ...
No it breaks my heart.

Freedom at once!


Our soilders are not above the law and do not have an open license to kill anyone they want for any reason. Rules still apply even on the field. I don't care if they killed your entire platoon, if they are in custody you just can't walk up to someone in a holding pen and shoot them execution style as that falls under Internaitonal War Crimes violations. Hence why we have a justice system. Acts like this are dispicable. We are not to lower ourselves to our enemies level or else we then become no better then those we claim to oppose.
edit on 26-5-2011 by TheImmaculateD1 because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 03:39 AM
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reply to post by TheImmaculateD1
 

Well, I guess it was once said, if you're going to tell a lie, tell a big lie (I think it was Hitler or one of his henchmen).
The people only believe big lies.

So, I suppose if you're going to kill people, use a big bomb.
Kill a lot of people at once.
Then you are a hero.
If you kill one man - that is not good.



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 03:44 AM
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Originally posted by halfoldman
reply to post by TheImmaculateD1
 

Well, I guess it was once said, if you're going to tell a lie, tell a big lie (I think it was Hitler or one of his henchmen).
The people only believe big lies.

So, I suppose if you're going to kill people, use a big bomb.
Kill a lot of people at once.
Then you are a hero.
If you kill one man - that is not good.




Don't try to sit there and justify this death. This is wrong, murder is murder!



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 03:58 AM
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reply to post by TheImmaculateD1
 
\

I fully agreed with you dude. One reason to treat prisoners of war humanely is so that the other side will treat their prisoners humanely. You just hold someone in custody, feed them, keep them alive, and after hostilities end the prisoner goes home. Thats what America did in all our other wars, regardless of who we were fighting. In a lot of cases, opposing armies treated American prisoners of war humanely and after the war these men came home to their families. Another is that it makes victory easier if opposing soldiers know that if they surrender they will be treated humanely. On the western front of the war with Germany, WW2, Americans and British treated surrendering Germans well, so the Germans surrendered. On the eastern front Stalinist Russia butchered prisoners, so nobody had the slightest interest in surrendering, everybody always fought to the death because there was nothing to be gained by surrendering. That made victory much more difficult for Russia on the eastern front than it was for Britain and America on the western front, and much more needless death. Also, we are a good people. Virtue is its own reward, it is better to do the right thing, this means you do not kill unarmed prisoners anywhere. If God forbid you found yourself being held as a prisoner of war you would rather go home to your family at the end of the war than to be murdered, wouldn't you?



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 04:06 AM
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I bet that detainee took part in beheadings of us/ally troops. Why not kill him? Simple minded and stupid comment yeh, But if he got released and went back to the taliban, who knows what he'd do next?

This war is stupid. Talibans are raising kids to fight so there will be no end to to war unless we do something drastic. I'd rather they kill all the terrorists that rape and murder poor innocent people, Yet anti-USA and UK haters blame our troops for rape? It's crazy.



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 04:23 AM
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reply to post by Matt6320
 


I don't believe they are any UK haters cause i believe the world love the UK usually though since America is the superpower, they get subject to heavy criticism.

Well no matter what, you cannot kill a POWs unless the Taliban did something bad or not tried to escape, etc and so on.



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 04:25 AM
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reply to post by TheImmaculateD1
 

And this is not murder?
www.trust.org...
Almost 200 000 Iraqis killed?

That man asked for help.
He was not given help.
He was sent back to occupy and subdue people in the name of every US American.

How dare they judge.
For every collective crime, there must be a collective punishment.
Locking away this man will not make another 199 000 victims any better.

edit on 26-5-2011 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 04:45 AM
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reply to post by halfoldman
 

When the war is over,
it's so easy to blame it
on the unknown soldier.

Yes, he becomes the scapegoat.

Make him different, for God's sake - "Other" him!
He's a psychopath.
He's not us.
We didn't want this.
It was just little crazy soldiers like him.
We were innocent.
Our leaders we voted into power twice were innocent.
Everybody was innocent.

Except for that little soldier ...
Him!
He invented the Taliban in his sick mind.
Hang him!
He's the scapegoat, and the scapegoat must die!



edit on 26-5-2011 by halfoldman because: (no reason given)



posted on May, 26 2011 @ 04:56 AM
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He was a schizophrenic and the army still saw fit to let him carry a gun?

While I feel justice was served, as much blame for this lies with whoever decided it would be a good idea to let an unfit individual serve after it became clear he was having mental issues.

There is so much stupidity involved with how we manage our armed forces, sometimes it bewilders me.



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