Oh BTW- remember the SC soldiers who refused to make the fuel run?

[underpants]

If this was on DU earlier (I'm sure it was) I just wanted to repeat it. Not too much media coverage of this huh?
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/12/05/iraq.reservists/


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Five U.S. soldiers who refused to go on a supply mission in Iraq that they considered too dangerous will not be court-martialed, but will receive other punishment, the U.S. military said Sunday.

As many as 19 members of the Army's 343rd Quartermaster Company were under investigation after they refused an order to make a supply run through a dangerous section of Iraq on October 13.

The decision announced Sunday involved five soldiers accused of failing to obey superiors, said Lt. Col. Steven Boylan, an Army spokesman in Baghdad. Rather than bring criminal charges, the Army will apply nonjudicial punishment, he said.

Under military law, nonjudicial punishment can include reprimands, reduction in rank, restriction to barracks or fines. Boylan said privacy restrictions prevented him from discussing what punishments are involved in these cases.

[MrUnderhill]

1. Seems reasonable.

If there was a way to avoid courts martial, that was the right thing to do.

[Ripley]

2. No it is not.

How many of the sadists in the prisons got busted in rank?

[MrUnderhill]

3. I'm pretty sure they ARE being court martialed.

Didn't the girl in the photos just get sentenced to a long jail term?

One of the guys who took the pictures was just sentenced to a year in prison, a BCD and demotion to the rank of Private (doesn't get any lower than that).

And that was the punishment he got for COOPERATING with the prosecutes and turning evidence against the others.

[Ripley]

4. You named two people.

What they did violated the Geneva Convention, thus they are war criminals and they along with their CO's should be on trial at the Hague and put in prison.

The SC unit that disobeyed an order should not be punished for refusing a suicide mission. How can you equate the two?

[MrUnderhill]

6. I didn't "equate the two"... YOU did.

They disobeyed a direct (and legal) order. The fact that it was a STUPID order is not relevant. The fact that an order CAN result in someone being killed does NOT make it an order you can disobey.

But it doesn't rise CLOSE to the level of what those animals did in that prison. They SHOULD be court martialed (and that IS being done right now). Those who violated their orders COULD be court martialed... but it isn't (IMO) the correct course of action.

Administrative punishment seems the correct course of action. What they did WAS wrong, and other soldiers should not come to believe that they can behave the same way (or we don't HAVE a military any longer)... but that doesn't make it comparable.

[mattclearing]

5. I agree.

This is a waste of time though. Everyone knows following orders is more important than doing the right thing.

If we were into rewarding doing the right thing, Kerry would have gotten elected in a walk as a reaction to Bush's folly.

We punish those who fall out of lockstep.