Shameful! Leniency for U.S. soldiers who deliberately murdered an innocent Iraqui

Parent Cafe
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<p>From AP:</p>

<p>"CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - In the beginning, there were eight. A squad of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged with kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi man, a crime described by a prosecutor as especially brutal.</p>

<p>They faced military trials; the death penalty was possible.</p>

<p>And now there are four. In the six months the men have been held at the Camp Pendleton brig, the profile of the Hamdania cases has changed dramatically. The death penalty is off the table and four of the defendants have struck plea bargains…</p>

<p>The group was accused of kidnapping 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad in the town of Hamdania, taking him to a roadside hole, shooting him and then trying to cover up the incident. According to court testimony, the troops planned to kidnap and kill a known insurgent, and when they couldn’t get to him, some members of the squad went into Awad’s home.</p>

<p>“They killed a 52-year-old crippled man in cold blood,” Lt. Col. John Baker, a prosecutor, said during a recent hearing. “They killed a retired police officer with 11 children and four grandchildren. Hashim Awad was a very forgiving and gentle man. He was precisely the kind of man (the Marines were) sent to help…"</p>

<p>Judges have listened to testimony and recommended sentences, only to have them trumped by plea bargains. Defense lawyers have said their clients did no wrong, and would be found not guilty at trial.</p>

<p>Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson J. Bacos, sentenced to 10 years confinement, will serve only one year because of a pretrial agreement. Pfc. John J. Jodka III, recommended for five years confinement and a dishonorable discharge will serve only 18 months and may get a non-punitive discharge under the plea agreement…"</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15787012/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15787012/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Seems they all made agreements to talk and nobody got punished</p>

<p>Truely sad, imagine what the Iraqis think of us now, don’t even punish our own</p>

<p>I can see plea bargains for say ONE or TWO of the culprits to get the really bad guys, but to plea averyone out to avoid a trial is shameful</p>

<p>Can’t imagine why the war is going soo well and we are trusted sooo much over there…pathetic</p>

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<p>And the Republicans wonder why half the world hates us.</p>

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<p>“strong on crime” suuureee</p>

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<p>no wonder the rest of the world hates the US</p>

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<p>We don’t know the exact circumstances. It is a military trial and details are not opened to public. And they were in a war zone.</p>

<p>About those who are quick the sneer at US, this is nothing compared to the crime and barbarity Iraqui committed against themselves. Sunnis were kidnapped and tortured by Shiites and vice versa on daily basis.</p>

<p>Have a sense of fair proportion is what I am saying. If we get wide-spread report of abuse by the US military, that’s different. If we are a suppressive regime, news like this wouldnt even get out. </p>

<p>By the way, if you are Americans, “support our troops” sounds hollow if you are so quick to belittle America for the actions of isolated individuals.</p>

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<p>Actually this is not why the world does not like us. In fact, the world does not even know about this and the Iraqis definitely do not know about this unless ofcourse you are implying that thhis happens so often that the iraqis see it…</p>

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<p>Maybe they had poor backgrounds and were suffering from psychological problems from combat stress. Don’t you liberals always support the rights of the accused and mitigating circumstances?? I thought so.</p>

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<p>Um, the world does know about it…and why would Iraqis not know about?</p>

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<p>If the US never entered Iraq none of this headache problems would have been on the shoulders of the US.</p>

<p>right now I ask myself, what exactly is the point of this war?
what did we gain from this?
why did we go?</p>

<p>I heard there were plans to split Iraq up into three countries.</p>

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<p>Go study some history. “Iraq” wasn’t really a single country until Britain pulled out and left them to paste a government together out of three political/religous/cultural groups that were only unified in their dislike for one another. Before that, the Ottoman Turks held the area together by force.</p>

<p>The issue isn’t whether or not anyone has a plan to split Iraq into three, but whether any force (like the Turks, the Brits, or the Baathists before 2003) will be willing to brutally suppress the natural antipathies of the Sunnis, the Shiites, and the Kurds to keep them together in a marriage of geopolitcal convenience.</p>

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<p>Because they dont really get the same news that we do, this is not something that the everday Iraqi would hear about</p>

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<p>''Iraq was historically known as Mesopotamia, which literally means “between the rivers” in Greek. This land was home to the world’s first civilization, the Sumerian culture, followed by the Akkadian, Babylonian, and Assyrian cultures, whose influence extended into neighboring regions as early as 5000 BC. These civilizations produced the earliest writing and some of the first sciences, mathematics, laws and philosophies in the world, making the region the center of what is commonly called the “Cradle of Civilization”. Ancient Mesopotamian civilization dominated other civilizations of its time.</p>

<p>In the sixth century BC, the region became a part of the Persian Empire under Cyrus the Great, before it was conquered by Alexander the Great and remained under Greek rule for nearly two centuries. A Central Asian tribe of Iranian peoples called Parthians then annexed the region, followed by the Sassanid Persians until the 7th century.</p>

<p>Beginning in the seventh century AD, Islam spread to what is now Iraq. The prophet Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law moved his capital to Kufa “fi al-Iraq” when he became the fourth caliph. The Umayyads ruling from Damascus in the 7th century ruled the province of Iraq.</p>

<p>Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate, was the leading city of the Arab and Muslim world for five centuries. In 1258, Baghdad was devastated by the Mongols and was later occupied by the Ottoman Turks. Ottoman rule over Iraq lasted until the Great War (World War I) when the Ottomans sided with Germany and the Central Powers. During World War I, the Ottomans were driven from much of the area by the United Kingdom during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.</p>

<p>During World War I, the British and French divided the Middle East in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The British would control Mesopotamia. At the end of World War I, the League of Nations granted the area to the United Kingdom as a mandate. It was formed out of three former Ottoman vilayets (regions): Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. However, for three out of four centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule, the vilayets of Baghdad, Mosul, and Basra were administered from Baghdad. During the British mandate, the country was ruled by British colonial administrators who used the British armed forces to put down rebellions against the government. They selected the Hashemite king, Faisal, who had been forced out of Syria by the French, to be their client ruler.</p>

<p>Iraq was granted independence in 1932 by the urging of King Faisal, though the British retained military bases and transit rights for their forces in the country. King Ghazi of Iraq ruled as a figurehead after King Faisal died in 1933, while Iraq suffered from military coups (dictatorships) until he died in 1939. Iraq was invaded by the United Kingdom in 1941, for fears that the government of Rashid Ali might cut oil supplies to Western nations and because of his strong leanings to Nazi Germany. A military occupation followed after the restoration of the Hashemite monarchy, and the occupation ended on October 26, 1947. The rulers of the country during the occupation and the remainder of the Hashemite monarchy period were the autocratic prime minister Nuri al-Said who also ruled from 1930-1932 and the advisor ‘Abd al-Ilah to the king Faisal II.’'</p>

<p>the present day Iraq was invaded and controlled by many nations</p>

<p>In that case India wasn’t a single country until the British pulled out.</p>

<p>whats your point here?
I was just saying a statement.
why are you arguing w/ me?</p>

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<p>“Because they dont really get the same news that we do, this is not something that the everday Iraqi would hear about”</p>

<p>Actually, they follow every blog, and every news report assiduously. These are highly civilized people, who monitor carefully what affects them. But the overwhelming majority already approve of killing Americans; it’s only a question of how many go out and choose to actually do it.</p>

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<p>Where do you get a “overwhelming majority” approve of killing Americans? Back it up please.</p>

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<p>Last poll, conducted for the U.S. government, found 61%, in June. That’s up from less than 20% after the invasion, but before the latest round of happenings. (You can search this site for the link.) In other words, they have experienced Americans, and aren’t particularly happy campers.</p>

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<p>Right, because there’s no Internet anywhere in Iraq. Nor is there a single person there who can read English. We can be certain about this. They definitely don’t know. Yeah.</p>

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<p>Who in the thread belittled America? Someone said “No wonder the rest of the world hates us,” which is an acknowledgement of a public-relations reality. We’re talking about the perceptions of others. This LOOKS really bad. For appearance purposes, it doesn’t matter whether it’s an isolated incident.</p>

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<p>America haters actually live right in the USA (many are citizens in fact) some willing to condemn all our soldiers - for the bad acts of a small minority</p>

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<p>SHAME on american america-haters - a very sad group indeed</p>

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<p>They most likely do not know about this happening. I am willing to bet most Americans do not know this happened either. It has nothing to do with acess to media, its just something that has been quieted by the military in Iraq.</p>

<p>Also saying they hate us because of that, assuming they know, which most of them dont, is ridiculous. They hate us because of an ideology that is fed to them through religion or nationalitic terrorists. Its like blaming the beheading of Nicholas Berg by terrorists on Abu Grahib, which followed shortly after the abuses at that prison-you would be assuming that the beheading would not take place had abu grahib abuses never occured.</p>