All Is Not Well With The American Military

06-02-2006, 11:14 PM

The American military has been rocked again with claims of atrocities against unarmed civilians in the town of Ishaq in Iraq by members of the 101st Airborne.

And this follows on the heels of accusations that US Marines killed 24 civilians in the western town of Haditha last November.

They're not isolated cases. No Gun Ri (Korea), My Lai (Vietnam) and Abu Ghraib (Iraq) are the more high profile cases, but the above is becoming more prevalent.

Why?

Is todays current soldier less moral than in previous years? I don't think so, and several atrocities go back a number of years.

Is it to do with the pressure being placed on the American soldier to act as the worlds 'fireman', being placed in extremely awkward situations where the psychological pressure of ones comrades deaths in a 'policing' environment results in an explosion of anger and frustration? Perhaps.

Several nations have been in this situation in the past. The French Army in Algeria and in Vietnam; The British Army in Palestine and Cyprus; both suffered similar laspes by it's military forces aganst civilians.

I don't profess to know the answer. All I do know is that things are likely to get much worse before they improve.

lesofprimus · 06-03-2006, 07:03 AM

Soldiers are not policemen, and most were not/are not trained in the guerrilla/insurgent aspect of combat.... EVERY SINGLE INDIVIDUAL U SEE IS A POTENTIAL TARGET... The trick is determining who and/or what is a legitimate target....

Unfortunately, even children are targets, and it is one of the hardest things a combat operative has to deal with.... Trust me as I know from experience.... But the one thing I can tell u is that whoever was responsible for the unwarranted killings, they were led to that point by a senior non-com or an OIC.... Leadership in combat is the one of the most important thing, next to fire discipline, and these accused units were obviously lacking in both departments...

Below is a vid clip of what happens in an insurgent enviornment.... Kids as the enemy....

Soundbreaker Welch? · 06-03-2006, 01:51 PM

Those kids certainly are a threat! I wonder what happened to them.

lesofprimus · 06-03-2006, 02:02 PM

They were probably honored and celebrated by their fellow scumbags....

Erich · 06-03-2006, 02:21 PM

Gents I will be brief on this as rasing this brings a horrid taste to my mouth. If you guys knew just how many innocents were blown off the earth in Vietnam it would make your blood curl, but realize the all important note here: during the wicked time in the far east the innocents as they are called would wave at us in one se3cond and pull an Ak 47 out ans shoot us in the back on another out of the rice paddies. As in the mid east as well in nam the VC would be in such a forceful position to put villagers in front of huts to take the brunt of our return fire whie the VC would shoot at us from a protected although thin walled hut.
Same applies in the mideast, force women and the elderly/young to walk out in front of a fire fight and then say we blew Iraqui civilians away. Unless you have ever been in a fire fight and reeceived fire from blank windows and walls/roofs you will never know what it feels like. . . . what is the first reaction. . . . send fire into that general area (especially when you see your buds getting drilled).

The media has warped the situation in the mideast out of control and again is trying to make a mockery out of our service personell. Meida needs to take a break and come out to the front lines and see first hand. But then whom needs more imbeds taking a bullet and jeopardizing a mission; which they have in the past

E

pbfoot · 06-03-2006, 02:38 PM

It has been going on since the beginning of time and no military is immune there has never been or never will be a perfect war

Erich · 06-03-2006, 03:01 PM

so true pb. What in reality yanks me is that they did not let us do our job in Nam and they are not letting us do our job in the Mideast - Iraq or Afghanistan.

only if they would so we can come home alot sooner ............. but NO always has to be a political/media ploy to disrupt and form public consensus

lesofprimus · 06-03-2006, 03:10 PM

Amen Erich and pb....

pbfoot · 06-03-2006, 03:32 PM

These things as I said have always happened but in these modern times information is passed instantly in times past at least for Erich and Twitch and others in our age group we can probably remember the first live transmission transatlantic of of video and it was incredibly expensive they used to have send film not video across in airliners of major news events but now news is so readily available and we have the option of many sources so any little snippet or rumour of misdeeds are known in seconds rather then years down the road before having the option of hindsight

evangilder · 06-04-2006, 10:36 PM

It's a bit of a double edged sword, though. The problem is that if the story gets out that is incorrect, and people go nuts and riot and people die because of it, then it turns out that the report was false, then that is where rapid information runs afoul. Like when some disaster strikes in the world, then yor see headlines from different news source with differing numbers and facts. "200 dead in earthquake in xyz" and 2 headlines down 450 dead...etc.

The big problem is when these "facts" get presented that are often unchecked. Have atrocities occurred, yes. Will it ever be perfect? Hell no. Because if we could pinpoint kill the responsible party, we wouldn't need to send these brave young men into harms way. Hell, for that matter, you wouldn't need a military, right? I think we can all see where this would lead, "Who decides?" "Who is right and wrong" etc. There are no easy answers and the world is one f*cked up orb. In wars, people die, too many.

One more thing. I do have a bit of a problem with an Australian coming onto a message board with that as the title of the thread: "All Is Not Well With The American Military". And you know this how? The wording could have been better for the subject.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · 06-05-2006, 06:53 AM

Well here is what I have to say to that and this is from my experience in Iraq. You do not know your enemy, when you are out of the wire you fear everyone because all of them are potential insurgents. Women, Children, Farmers, Taxi Drivers, Old Men, etc...

Mistakes happen and innocents get killed. It is a fact of war, especially this kind. Is it tragic when a innocent civilian gets killed. Yes however do you think that any of these "innocent civilians" wept or condemned the thousands of INNOCENT PEOPLE that were in the World Trade Center. No the majority of them cheared for the way the infidel west was paying for being the non believers.

Last I would like to say, I dont know if this is true in this case, but many many times these so called "innocents" are not innocents, the LAME *** MONEY HUNGRY LIBERAL PRESS is looking for ways of twisting a story around and making the US Military look bad so that they can make a buck or two! I know from first hand experience that we never targeted out innocent women and children and civilians.

Hunter368 · 06-21-2006, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PipsPriller

The American military has been rocked again with claims of atrocities against unarmed civilians in the town of Ishaq in Iraq by members of the 101st Airborne.

And this follows on the heels of accusations that US Marines killed 24 civilians in the western town of Haditha last November.

They're not isolated cases. No Gun Ri (Korea), My Lai (Vietnam) and Abu Ghraib (Iraq) are the more high profile cases, but the above is becoming more prevalent.

Why?

Is todays current soldier less moral than in previous years? I don't think so, and several atrocities go back a number of years.

Is it to do with the pressure being placed on the American soldier to act as the worlds 'fireman', being placed in extremely awkward situations where the psychological pressure of ones comrades deaths in a 'policing' environment results in an explosion of anger and frustration? Perhaps.

Several nations have been in this situation in the past. The French Army in Algeria and in Vietnam; The British Army in Palestine and Cyprus; both suffered similar laspes by it's military forces aganst civilians.

I don't profess to know the answer. All I do know is that things are likely to get much worse before they improve.

While I have no direct facts on the subject but I highly doubt that the frequency of such things has increased, just the number of such acts being reported has increased due to the huge increase in media coverage. I would bet that such things has decreased over the last 40-60 years.

It has nothing to with the USA military directly. The only reason that they "seem" to get more reports of such things is b/c their military is more active then any other military around the world. That and they hold their military to high moral standards compared to many other countries. Just look at all the places where their troops have been in the last 15 years, allot of hell holes.

They fight a none traditional war every where they go now, not their choice thats for sure. Its not just a matter of fighting a war like it was in WW2, its sooooo different now. Its like freaking guerrilla warfare all the time, 24/7. You have to watch kids, women, old people and men. Thats stress, thats dangerous, thats fatiguing, thats war in 2006. Its hell. No military in the world can do it any better than the USA military. There will be isolated incidents with any military, thats war and reality in 2006 if you want to play any role in global politics in our day and age. The only way to have no such incidents is to never let your troops outside your own border. I think their troops maintain very good composure in very difficult situation.

syscom3 · 06-22-2006, 01:13 AM

These are allegations.

The soldiers are innocent untill proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

DerAdlerIstGelandet · 06-22-2006, 02:15 AM

Exactly and the ****ing press blows things out of proportions.

Erich · 06-22-2006, 09:30 PM

remember this is the mideast and not Nam from the sense that the individuals were are trying to eliminate as well as the locals hae a very different belief system religiously. It was not common to be a VC suicide bomber. Did we have buildings blow and booby traps all around .....of course ! but we did not have an individual come in disguised like a woman/soldier or drive a truck through a road block full of explosives and blow them and us to pieces. for these in the mid-east, life means nothing except to die as a martyr