- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
Anyone who has been in in the shit and kept their head and yes, heart about them without succumbing to "war time rationale and justifications" to perpetrate cold-blooded, inhumane, gutless and heartless killings will agree with me when I say these soldiers--all of them--blew the call.
What they did--even by war-time, insurgent intensive, flexible, fuzzy, relaxed and "off-the-grid" rules of engagement was murder pure and simple. The commander on the ground coldly, calculatingly, and with premeditation killed plain and simple. They had options,many of them, all of which wouldn't have pumped up their kills but solved the problem in a more humane, responsible, courageous manner.
It's one thing to be surprised, have to make a split second decision and it's you and your buddies in the shit and your lives may be--or not--on the line but you have to make the call in an instant and you don't want to be wrong on that one. War sucks. It sucks in unimaginable ways when you are in it. You make decisions in the heat of the battle and you can't second guess.
But when an enemy,--even a confirmed enemy-- is lying on the ground in front of you, he is compliant and, he would likely surrender if given the options and you just met his son, saw his son, and you know in your head and heart that this is a surreal situation that has real consequences, then God Damn It, you don't shoot the man in cold blood. You don't.
You keep your shit together and you remember that you are human being, in a soldier's uniform and you do the right God Damn Thing and that does not include putting a bullet in his head.
How are we even debating this? Have we lost our minds, our souls.
I hate to read this shit. and yes, their are two sides and we weren't there. but the facts as related in the article make me ashamed in so many ways.
And the soldier who gave the command is now training special forces for his leadership out in the field. That's great. That's just great.
Why Army leadership loses their balls and their minds and their common sense at the expense of human lives as they move up the chain-of-command is left for others to debate They don't do the right thing in war-time. They give up their soldiers for dead with so many dumb, suck-up, decisions they make in a vacuum and when they do they betray the uniform, the flag, and they dishonor so many brave men and women who have honorably, bravely and with much confusion, fear and courage served our country.
This is sickening to me.
