A Marine corporal has been convicted of kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the death of an Iraqi man in Hamdaniya
CNN:
Cpl. Trent D. Thomas had pleaded guilty to murder in the killing, then withdrew his plea earlier this year.
Thomas was found not guilty on charges of murder, larceny, housebreaking and making a false official statement, according to a statement released by the U.S. Marine Corps. Sentencing proceedings are set to begin Thursday, the Marines said.
Thomas, 25, was among a group of four Marines and a Navy medic who pleaded guilty, but initially was the only one to admit to murder in the April 2006 killing of Hashim Ibrahim Awad, 52.
Marine guilty on two charges but not murder in Iraqi's death
US marine guilty of Iraq killing
posted by Adam Lawson @ 12:50 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
If someone had been convicted of committing these crimes in the United States, e.g., in Texas, and faced a possible sentence of up to life imprisonment, what are the odds he would not be sentenced to a single solitary day in prison? What a travesty of so-called justice. Wonder how the families of the victim reacted when they heard the news. And we have given Al-Qaeda another great marketing tool for their recruiting drives. All this brought to you by a military that claims to have the safety of our fighting men and women in Iraq uppermost in their minds.
"just following orders" was NOT a defense for many Nazis after WWII. In the past 60 years this defense has been denied many by the U.S.
This war is unpopular enough outside of the U.S. Why is it that the U.S. wants to anger so many other countries?
This guy is a hero and let's give him a medal. War is war and politics should be left out of it. I am against this war but support the troops. A soldier's gotta do what he has to do in order to defend himself, even if it means executing a terrorist. The US would have lost WWII if they fought by the guidelines set today on fighting a war.
War is war and it is not a civilized event. War is barbaric and should be treated as though. As - "there is no crying in Baseball", There is no rules in war. To the winner goes the spoiles and loosers are tried for war crimes. To treat war in any other way is a Loosing Battle. May be that is why we are not winning. A civilized war ....Give me a break.
The innocent often suffer and pay a price for the guilty. It is easy to shift blame and throw the problems of the world on a 25 year old trying to do what he has been trained to do but he may not understand the ramifications of his actions. I can only imagine the fear of being there in the moment. Anyone of you want to trade places, confront his supervisor, and risk death and alienation of your comrades. We have ruined this young man's life whether we like it or not. So young and so damaged. I hope he can move on and find an education and career. We as a nation have a lot of blame to deal with... I am not talking about or war efforts. I am talking about taking care of our own and giving them the support they need when faced with circumstances beyond our suburbanite imagination. God Bless this young man, forgive him, and help him to move on... So sad...
"This guy is a hero and let's give him a medal... A soldier's gotta do what he has to do in order to defend himself, even if it means executing a terrorist."
He is not a hero. He did not kill a terrorist.
He was ordered to capture an insurgent. He failed. Trent then went into a civilian's house, took out the 52 year old man, marched him to a ditch, shot him to death, and then tried to cover it up by making him look like an insurgent. That is murder. Murder knowing full well that it was in fact murder and not serving his country in anyway.
Also, why is this up to the military? He killed an Iraqi citizen on Iraqi soil. This needs to be left to the government of Iraq to deal with. I can full well guarantee that if an Iraqi soldier came on American soil and did this to an American citizen, there's no way that the Iraq military would be allowed full control over the trial.
I think this end-result seems suspicious. Had he been truly guilty, they would have never let him go.
In the Orwellian world in which we live today, a dishonorable discharge IS a life sentence.
Is he a scapegoat? A fall guy?
Are we trying to convince the other side that we are of higher moral character because we will not torture those who tried to kill us first?
Are we trying to convince others that we are the only ones that are civilized in what can be only described as an uncivilized war?
Perhaps this moral high-handedness is what got us into this situation in the first place. The other side is no better.
The word hero is mis-used here. Hero is someone who despite his overwhelming fear overcomes his fear and achieves success for himself and the benefit of others. Where is the courage here? To lie. To betray the code? To betray the reason Bush said we are there in the first place to spread freedom and democracy. Later, to defend terrorist --- have we defeated terrorism by letting this guy go free? Defenders of this convicted criminal argue he is a hero because he had suffered under difficult times and that he is serving the military, which by their definition excuses criminal activity. Not all soldiers are heroes, and this soldier, with his agreement to coverup the crime did so against the military code of honor and practice. I believe this jury panel was wrong and it makes a lot people, including myself, believe the military may in this situation be too self-protected to realize this solder's actions were wrong by any standard and against what we're fighting for --- truth, justice and the American way.
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