Hearing starts for soldier accused of killing officers (in Iraq)

[UpInArms]

http://www.wwaytv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=4718315&nav=menu70_2

FORT BRAGG, N.C. An investigatory hearing is being conducted today at Fort Bragg for a soldier accused of killing two officers in Iraq.

Staff Sergeant Alberto B. Martinez of Troy, New York, also is charged with failure to obey orders and giving military office equipment to an Iraqi. An Article 32 hearing on the murder charges was held while Martinez's New York National Guard unit was deployed in Iraq.

The case is believed to be the first in which a soldier is charged with killing a superior officer in Iraq. But it isn't the first "fragging" case out of the Iraq conflict.

...more...

[mdmc]

1. sad story

[coalition_unwilling]

2. I half hate to say this, but I expect to see such "fragging" incidents

start to mushroom in the next 9 months. Acc. to Zogby's poll, over 70% of troops want to be out by end of 2006. As the realization sinks in that it is a lost cause, enlisted will start resisting more overtly the idiotic orders from ticket punching officers. (That is, if the post-Tet Vietnam experience is any guide.)