If they (The Snipers) were surprised intheir position and killed them immediately, I could see it. Look at that SEAL Team LT who got the MOH. He let those farmers go and a few hours later 200 Taliban were on their keysters and alot of them died. These snipers position was compromised. Their mistake was to hold them for a time and then let them go, only to shoot one of them later and try to cover it up. Once they are a "POW" they have rights. Gotta think.
This is absolutely ridiciulous. My opinion is only my own....yes you gotta think, but you also have to have clear direction..sounds like he had poor instruction as well as a lack of clear leadership. I am in Iraq and the rules of engagement aren't always so cut and dried.
I SPENT TWO TOURS IN NAM AND WE DID WHAT WE HAD TO DO THIS SOILDER DID NOTHING WRONG IM SURE HE STOOD ON HIS ORDERS INSTEAD OF GIVING HIM 10 YEARS THEY SHOULD GIVE HIM A METAL I WILL NEVER ALLOW MY SONS TO GO INTO THE SERVICE ANY BRANCH ITS NOT LIKE IT WAS REMEMBER CALLEY THE DOWNED HILICOPTERS REMEMBER THE DRAGGING OF THE DEAD BODIES REMEMBER THE BEHEADINGS ITS WAR NOT A GAME THEY SEND US TO THIS GOD FORSAKEN COUNTRY FOR OIL IT MAKES NO SENSE
And if the iraqi went in there with a bomb straped to his waist and detonated it, The soldier would be charged with deriliction of duty for not doing his job. UN EFEN BELIEVABLE.. ITS WAR DAMN IT.
They shouldn't have tried to cover it up by lying and planting a weapon on the vic.
Having said that, the jury sucks. It is a war zone, who are they in their safe little chairs to say, much less know what the victim really was? He could have been a spy.
Don't send out troops off to war and then refuse to stand behind them. Mistakes are made. The Army has acted in a disgraceful manner in my opinion.
I would like to know where the sniper team's security was. You don't have a hide and no security. Had a watch been posted, no one could have walked up unannounced. They broke protocol and look what happened.
He put his life on the line for his country. With the way they strap bombs onto people, even children to blow Americans up, you don't know who is a good guy and who isn't. I agree with rm444 THIS STINKS.
"It's a war, damn it" is no kind of defense. There are local SOP's that guide your actions, Rules of Land Warfare, and ROE's. Blatant violations of any of these will get your azz in a ringer. This guy blatantly violated. He didn't have to do what he did.
This is a crock of @#$%. Train a man to kill.Chew him and his team out when they don't and when they do, Send him to jail. This is war. Sometimes people get killed for the wrong reasons.It happens. He is to protect his team and in their"hide". The civilian s don't wear signs saying wether they are friendly or not. Would that soldier have gotten a medal if he allowed the man and his kid to go on their way and then been slaughtered by a larger insurgent force because their position had been compromised. Would their comander been happy to see his sniper team strung up along a bridge? Hopefully the decision will be overturned upon appeal. We are not and should never be an occupation Force. This is the kind of trouble that happens when the ROE can change when the troops are in this kind of position.
"I find the Americans have more fairness than the Arabs," he said. "Their system is so fair that even if the judge were (Vela's) family member, he would have been convicted." The fact that he says that he wont join the enemy is yet to be proven. If you burned the hootches then you made V.C. If you go around killing the Civ. then you make insurgents it is as simple as that.
They should have evac'ed and left the secured Civ. in the old hide site.
No wonder no body wants to go in the military today. Trained to kill and get pen time. That's Bull ****. Shame on our Goverment. This guy should have got a metal for what he done. The Military has changed a lot since I've been in.
The man committed murder on an unarmed man, and on the orders of his field commander:
quote:
The snipers detained al-Janabi and the man's 17-year-old son Mustafa. They freed the boy, but minutes after he walked off, the commander ordered Vela to shoot the father. The Soldiers said al-Janabi was making noise and they feared he was trying to attract the attention of a group of military-age males they thought they saw nearby.
HE (the "commander") should be in jail as well...so why isn't he?
Originally posted by sparkiUSAF: This is absolutely ridiciulous. My opinion is only my own....yes you gotta think, but you also have to have clear direction..sounds like he had poor instruction as well as a lack of clear leadership. I am in Iraq and the rules of engagement aren't always so cut and dried.
Kim
If he had not lied and tried to cover it up IMO nothing would have been done because of the mental and physical fatigue. The fact they tried to cover it up showed they thought what they did in killing an unarmed Iraqi that was their prisoner was wrong.
quote:
The snipers detained al-Janabi and the man's 17-year-old son Mustafa. They freed the boy, but minutes after he walked off, the commander ordered Vela to shoot the father. The Soldiers said al-Janabi was making noise and they feared he was trying to attract the attention of a group of military-age males they thought they saw nearby.
"It's a simple case," said Capt. Jason Nef, one of two military prosecutors. "The reason is because Vela confessed on the stand that he lied. He confessed he killed an unarmed Iraqi."
This kid should have been found not guilty of murder. He lied. Big difference. His comaanders should be held accountable. Once again it's a classic example of the good old boy network at work. How could the convening authority go aftyer the kid after hopefully a thorough and impartial investigation implicates command pressure to increase kill count. It's a wonder that young patriots still volunteer for service after reading stories like this. It makes me want to puke.
Originally posted by sewuph2: He put his life on the line for his country. With the way they strap bombs onto people, even children to blow Americans up, you don't know who is a good guy and who isn't. I agree with rm444 THIS STINKS.
The man was already a prisoner and they had even released his son BEFORE they shot him. The claim it was because he was trying to make noise fell apart when they lied about what happened BEFORE making that claim.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: rayld2,
Well, yeah, if he had been wearing a bomb, or carrying an AK-47, or started firing on the snipers, or planting an IED, or any other sort of hostile act, the sniper would have a good shoot. Or if this had been Vietnam, where conditions were much different. Or if the liberal media and Congress had called for action in the case. Or if the sniper had been a member of Al Quaeda and the person killed was an American soldier, then the situation would have been much different. But none of these things fit the facts.
Why doesn't everybody just stick to the facts of the situation?
If a frog had wings he wouldn't bump his rear end so much.
Unfortunately, he was just an unarmed civilian who stumbled upon a sniper nest, got himself killed, and had false evidence planted on him, and a lie told about him.
quote:
Originally posted by Yestramski: And if the iraqi went in there with a bomb straped to his waist and detonated it, The soldier would be charged with deriliction of duty for not doing his job. UN EFEN BELIEVABLE.. ITS WAR DAMN IT.
