(Ft.) Carson Soldier Faces Charge of Cowardice

[kskiska]

A soldier with Fort Carson’s 10th Special Forces Group has been charged with cowardice for allegedly refusing to do his duty in Iraq.

Staff Sgt. Georg Porgany, 32, a Special Forces interrogator, is charged with showing “cowardly conduct as a result of fear, in that he refused to perform his duties,” according to his charge sheet.

If convicted in a court-martial, the soldier faces prison time and a dishonorable discharge. He was charged Oct. 14. His first court appearance is Nov. 7 at Fort Carson.

A cowardice charge is extremely rare, military law experts say. Army officials couldn’t say Wednesday the last time it had been filed.

Porgany said he is wrongly charged.

The soldier said he experienced a “panic attack” after seeing the mangled body of an Iraqi man and told his superior he was heading for a “nervous breakdown.”

more…
http://www.gazette.com/popupNews.php?id=626747

[bleedingheart]

1. reminds me of that scene out of the movie Patton

I had an uncle kill himself due to his "shell shock" experience in WWII. He was so disturbed by what he had seen over there and he couldn't come to grips with it so he hung himself...no one should have that happen.

[gratuitous]

2. Damn

The ones who break down after seeing the total inhumanity of war up close and personal actually make me feel a little better. It's the ones who suck it up and gut it out only to have these little psychological time bombs go deep into their brains, waiting for the opportune moment to blow up who truly worry me.

This story reads like something out of the Dark Ages in terms of official indifference and hostility to a soldier who has gone beyond his capability to cope with the situation.

[hlthe2b]

5. those neocon chickenhawks should have to live & relive

this soldier's experiences continually through eternity. Their own just little hell.

Problem is, this soldier has a conscience and I doubt seriously that any of these Bushistas have one as well.

[Onward]

9. I agree, gratuitous,

The soldier should be charged with "bravery."

[gratuitous]

11. I don't think he should be "charged" with anything

According to the story, the guy's been throwing up everything, can't sleep, is experiencing panic attacks, and his CO is ordering him back on duty. This is not someone I would want in a sensitive special forces position. Maybe he just needs some R&R. Maybe he needs some intense counseling and psychological therapy. I don't know. But he is surely not fit for active front line duty. Charging him with "cowardice" is, as I said, just a Dark Ages mentality.

[0007]

14. But instead Porgany will face disgrace!

Didn't Boykin's God tell him that every man is redeemable?

Oh hum!

[newyawker99]

23. Hi Onward!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Onward]

27. Thanks, newyawker99

I just found DU recently, and I love the energy here...

[Skittles]

3. If anyone should be charged with cowardice

it is our unelected AWOL piece of shit "Commander in Chief".

[nono]

10. Agree

Put the chimp up with him.

[Fridays Child]

4. We're not getting the whole story.

-snip-
The sergeant told him to “go away and think about what I was saying because I was throwing my career away,” Porgany said.
-snip-

I have to wonder what he really saw. What was done to the man whose body he saw?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

6. And was it really a man the soldier saw? Could it have been a child?

[ninkasi]

7. Ok...he was an interrogator

Is it remotely possible that the duty he refused to perform had anything to do with brutal interrogation techniques? Could he have been ordered to torture someone?

I think it's incredible that the whole Bush gang of thugs, made up almost entirely of cowards and chickenhawks, have the nerve to question anybody else's behavior.

[Judi Lynn]

13. I'll bet they did torture him

He arrived in the compound after having been grabbed:

The unit was working on Sept. 29 out of Samarra, north of Baghdad, when Porgany saw the body of an Iraqi man brought into the Army compound.

Soldiers on a Bradley Fighting Vehicle killed the Iraqi after he was spotted shooting a rocket-propelled grenade, Porgany said.

Porgany had never seen anything like that. Shortly after, he said, he began shaking, couldn’t focus and kept throwing up his food.

Knowing that, you really hate to imagine just what the hell happened to him after they seized him.

[UpInArms]

8. this is very disturbing

Instead of help, Porgany said, one of his superiors told him to “get his head out of his ass and get with the program.”

so if our military behaves in any normal way to the atrocities that they view or fear that they feel, they are "cowards"?

[Dhalgren]

16. Right.

The point is that this treatment is being meted out by Army brass, not neo-con chickhawks. These officers have behaved completely out of character for a situation as this one is described. I agree with an earlier poster, there's something we aren't being told. I was in the Army, and I cannot imagine this kind of treatment. When a soldier comes foreward and reports that he is ill - whatever the illness - he is handled in a medical way. There is no room for the Patton-like treatment of soldiers experiencing mental or nervous maledies. I can't see this happening. But if a soldier was refusing to follow the standard company procedures... You see, and officer would never order a prisoner to be "tortured". The officer would tell the troops to take the prisoner out and "show him the light" or "explain his situation to him". The troops would know what this meant. If one of the troops balked at this, I could see him being told to "get with the program". This is all speculation, but from my experience in the Army, this story doesn't seem to add up.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

12. Chilling dissent:Convicted of Humanity. He should throw 'his career' away.

This is either a specifically atrocious handling of one man's issues OR...indicitive of the crumbling of morale in the troops and the machine's fear that rejection of the falsely justified mission is spreading like a virus among the troops.

Thankfully, the vaccine of patriotism boosted with megadoses of shame and fear is still not strong enough to completely eliminate humanity.

[Minstrel Boy]

15. "Convicted of humanity": wonderfully phrased

This man is, actually, a hero. I wish only there were more like him.

[Dhalgren]

17. I agree.

If this man's story is what it appears to be, he is indeed a person to be commended, not reviled. If our armed forces have devolved to this level, then we should be very afraid - not of foreign agression, but of our own military.

[TacticalPeek]

18. Too bad so few civilian lawyers practice military law, tho understandable.

I would imagine a William Kunstler-like defence here could open many cans of worms. So many in fact, that a 'settlement' such as general discharge would be a likely outcome.

[DuctapeFatwa]

19. He probably refused to tortue someone's child

Or maybe even an adult.

It is telling that he is apparently the only one who has a problem with it.

[samsingh]

20. the neo-cons are all cowards

they would never put themselves at risk - only other people's children.

[E_Zapata]

21. What IMBECILES they are......

does the Army really think it's a GOOD THING (for recruitment, PR, and all) to highlight the matter that a soldier refuses to go to Iraq?????

[Frangible]

22. Gee, you mean some people don't like killing their fellow man?

Oh no, the cowards!

[Dover]

24. What do you do when you're branded, and you know you're a man?

Surely something has to snap when faced with inhuman acts. Particularly if you haven't been properly brainwashed into believing that Iraq deserved to be attacked and all Iraqis are "evil doers".

Either you become a killing machine, lose your mind, or kill yourself. This poor fellow had a human response, not one of cowardice.

[roguevalley]

25. Who's charging him with cowardice? Some rear echelon MF?

Amazing. Chimpy can prance on a carrier and pretend and some kid sees something so bad he falls apart and HE gets called the coward. Send all of the shit heads in charge of this forward to the war and I'm not talking about the generals. I am sure they've been there themselves.

[leetrisck]

26. He's 32 - still "in his youth" by a few years

according to Slimy Shrub calculations. Nothing counts with him before 45 so move on to something else.