This is murder, plain and simple. Killing people who are unarmed, blindfolded and bound. Its illegal , dummy.

Now that we have convicted so many of the little guys, when will the Dems in power have the balls to go after the big guys?

Soldiers refuse to follow orders all the time. Some actually survive—one lives here with me. He cant get a damn dime in disability of health care—but he can sleep at night, because he refused to kill civilians…got an honorable discharge too, They were afraid what he might say in court.

His benefits are still being appealed. He is Vietnam-era. They werent even “volunteers”, but I’m sure that teh WH and Congress will keep running NAFTA to leave lots of working class guys unemployed to go fight their criminal wars… f*ck..hey, if youre an “illegal alien” (wtf is that? surely not a PERSON!)you can “follow your dreams” and become a citizen, by only losing 3 limbs, like Max Cleland, but they’ll still call you Al Qaeuda and steal your seat…

For those of us old enough to remember, they did the same thing with some of the soldiers from Vietnam. Hang a few out to qwell the masses. I am certain, that in every war, there are those sacrificed for this reason.

What do they expect when they send our people into another culture, whose whole lifestyle, beliefs and everything else is foreign to the way in which our soldiers were brought up in over here. Everyone over there has the potential to be “the enemy”, this included children. Who is the “good guy and who is the bad guy”, does one ever really know? And when it gets right down to it, isn’t that why these soldiers were sent there in the first place? To kill? Isn’t that one of the goals of war?

I do not agree with any of “this war on terror*” or other wars, as most are based on lies and ego-maniacal ideas of some unqualified rulers of countries trying to take control of someone else’s country, to give themselves more power to oppress the lives of those not in the ruling classes. Until there is no profit in any war or activities that involve war and people learn a few basics, like respecting other people, their beliefs and their ways of life for what they are and not by trying to force others into a preconceived mold of what some feel all others must be forced into, we will continue to see this destructive activity continue.

America spends more money than the rest of the world combined each year into the ever expanding war monster. Just think of all the good for all of humanity and the planet, animals, environment and other more positive outcomes, if even 10% of all that wasted money on “the wars” was spent on improving the world. The outcome would be amazing. If as much effort was used for creating a better world for all, instead of destroying as much as it can, it truly would be a wonderful world.

Instead of buying into more wars, perhaps those who decide these things, even against the wants/desires of the majority of the people who end up paying for these wars, need to step back and instead of letting the emotional mindset of past administration continue, find a better way to solve these problems, real or imagined.

* The war on terror. When Bush came up with this idea, I said at the time it was a con job, as you cannot fight something, that while fighting against it, only makes it grow stronger and more wide spread. It is a never-ending catch-22 type scenerio. There are no winners, only losers.

to Danklink: I thank God I never “served” at all. The information
about US military atrocities in Iraq is documented publicly available
Apparently you are ignorant of this fact, and unaware of the efforts
IVAW Iraq Veterans Against the War are making to spread this “news”
As for your tales of woe, if you had the b—- to object to your own
deployment, one could then call you brave and heroic. Instead, you are yet another War Criminal.

@ danklink, February 21 at 8:02 am #
> As for routinely shooting families, what the fuck are you talking about?

You didn’t know about the US death squads? Never heard of Central America and the Contras? Pinochet, Chile and Operation Condor. 3 or 4 MILLION killed in Vietnam. Operation Phoenix. Where ya bin, Danklink? Oh well. Very young. Or very ostrich.

Haven’t used Google and Iraq?

A reference to the threatened, and implemented, ‘El Salvador Option’ - http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/FUL506A.html

There were three other relevant reports -
1. Of guards employed by the US in a village who were then massacred and claimed as ‘kills.’
2. Of a US supply convoy who came across a US unit at a checkpoint beside which was a car load of VERY recently beheaded Iraqis.
3. Another of night patrols finding and cutting the throats of goat herders. Just because.

Google is your friend.

War is hell. Especially if you are one of the 1.4 million civilians slaughtered in the name of Halliburton’s profits.

So the imprisonment for life of Sgt. Leahy is considered justice? Berry says we shouldn’t look back and so three past Administrations will get away with the use of W.M.D.’s on foreign nationals in their own country’s ensuring that the suffering will continue long after the empires military conquest has receded from memory. Were are the trials for those who subverted the long standing treaties on the use of depleted uranium? Are they not war criminals also? 
Now we have Afghanistan, the proving ground for Obama’s self righteous attempt to prove how tough he is using other people’s children.
Killing indiscriminately from robotic drones, throwing away more soldiers and treasure, guns or butter I always say. On ward Christian soldiers. 
This is the folly of those that follow blindly and will continue to be so.

We are also cowards when discussing why some people join the military. Just like cops there is a certian element which seek the Power a Gun and Uniform possess. The Ego which thrives off domination.Just because we Honor the Uniform, does not mean all those who wear it deserve (earned) the same.
but who is truely to blame are those who recklessly hand them the uniform,(Badge) and gun and Release them upon the population. Arrogance and Self righteousness are not attributes condusive to law enforcement- they are a detriment and are easily recognizeable if anyone bothers to look.
These Recruiters should be held respsonsible for their lack of evaluations for ‘Fitness for Duty’. Power Trips, Rengence are nothing more than the outcomes of low self esteem. Easier to build yourself up by standing on the head of another. a strong Self esteem does not require you dominate others- You are secure in ‘personhood’ and Value even when faced with oposition- you needn’t destroy them to be seen as Worthy.Another Reason Obama is held in High Regard and the Repug party is losing moderates in Droves. Their Desperation is easily detected and recognized as a weakness. Same can be said when a persepctive Recruit walks in the office to sign up.
Beyond that, the continuous warring amongst the ME factions have created it’s own ‘psychiatric ward’- it is hard to reamin sane when imprisoned in an insane environment- so the soldiers defense has some merit.
For an ME analogy one need only acknowldege the fact that Children brought up in a home with Domestic violence are far more likely to resort to Violence when they have their own home.Wife Beaters spawn not only new wife beaters, but wives who are willing to take a beating-it the only type of coping mechanism they have ever learned. 
We’ve dropped our kids- no matter how well adjusted- into a sociological and psychological vacuum of violence- Why should we be surprised when they resort to it when trying to survive.

Ah, yes, winning hearts and minds the American way since 1787—anyone remember Crazy Horse?

At least the kid did it personally—he didn’t drop bombs on them from 30,000 feet and consider himself a hero.

1.4 MILLION SLAUGHTERED IRAQIS

So this is justice for 4 murdered men. In eight years.

1,399,996 to go.

Let’s see. That means we should be all done in ... about 2,7999,992, years at this rate.

And they say that (US Military) justice is blind.

American military justice! For the killing of four innocent Iraqi civilians by a gang of a group trigger-happy soldiers, one of them is singled out to receive serving a life time in jail, just to put a show to the world that there is semblance of American military justice. It’s more a propaganda show than a real demonstration of justice.

Though I feel sorry for this soldier for being the sacrificial lamb among a group of killers, I feel that it would have been more honorable and courageous of him to refuse to serve in an evil and wrong war based on lies.

However, this is one of the many cases exhibiting the travesty of injustice by the unjust American system. The real ones who should have been put on trial were evil criminal Bush and gang for the much innocent blood of close to one million dead in Iraq, the over two millions displaced and made refugees and the total destruction of their country.

He was a Medic? He was a Medic?

This must be a sick joke. It’s public knowlege, that American soldiers
would routinely kick a door in and kill everyone inside the house—
men,women and children. They would enter an area and be told
there were “no friendlies”.  This was code for killing any person in
the zone. These facts have been publicized by IVAW Iraq veterans
Against the War and Winter Soldier.( A little background in this lame
article would have been helpful.)