What happens when you take a disturbed kid and shove him toward the abyss? He’s likely to fall in.
Maybe that’s what happened to the young soldier encountered by Washington Post writer Andrew Tilghman in Iraq last February. “I came over here to kill people,” the young private told him. “Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant.”
The soldier was Steven D. Green, now accused of premeditated rape and murder in the deaths of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family (see photo of crime scene) just three weeks after that conversation. Tilghman makes no excuses for Green, but his account of the near-constant fear and violence in Mahmudiyah, where Green’s unit was based, is harrowing.
And given reports of Green’s troubled youth, his apparent problems with drugs and alcohol, his petty criminal record, it’s easy to wonder how such a man was deemed fit for military service at all, not to mention the maelstrom of Iraq.
Posted by Dave Knadler
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- Jed on Let immigrants run
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
32 Comments
Many young criminals have a choice to choose military service or jail. Many pick the military.
http://www.mankatofreepress.com/feeds/apcontent/apstories/apstorysection/D8J80CUG0.xml.txt/resources_apstoryview
DEMOCRATIC SENATOR’S NEPHEW KILLED IN IRAQ
A nephew of Sen. Max Baucus serving in the Marines was killed in Iraq during the weekend, the senator’s office said Tuesday.
Cpl. Phillip E. Baucus, 28, died Saturday during combat operations in Anbar province, the Department of Defense said. It did not immediately release further information.
In a statement, Baucus, D-Mont., said the family was “devastated by the loss.”
“Phillip was an incredible person, a dedicated Marine, a loving son and husband, and a proud Montanan and American,” the senator said. “He heroically served the country he loved and he gave it his all.”
. . . . .
Good thing the Republican Senators don’t have to worry about any of their family getting whacked over there.
My heart goes out to Sen. Max Baucus and his family for the loss of his nephew. Just as it goes out to all who have lost loved ones in this conflict.
As for the military pulling in and training street punks for combat, you get what you train. I’m not surprised to hear this.
Add to this the influx of white supremicist skinheads into the military (links previously posted) and I’m sure our military is giving Iraqis a wonderful picture of just what kind of people we are. “squashing ants” is real easy after you dehumanize them.
And we wonder why they hate us.
BenI agree that we should be more selective in who we trust to send into combat.However, I am not sure how to accomplish that task.Do you think any type of psych profile could have prevented this?The Marine Corps boot camp itself weeds out many of the unstable.As far as the skinheads problem, I don’t know how you would catch those folks unless they were dumb enough to admit it up front or in some kind of screening process.Another huge problem experienced by the military is the street gang problem.Apparently, many take their street gang loyalties with them to Iraq.Gang graffiti is appearing in Iraq.Yes, all of this is a problem. Our military will reflect our culture.
I thought the military was supposed to do backgound checks on all applicants to find out criminal and drug history. I thought felonies and drug charges excluded an individual from serving. Wouldn’t a background check show gang affiliations? I would think that this would be rather pertanent information.
Julie- When the military is playing the “numbers game” with respect to meeting recruiting/ retention goals, magic things seem to happen routinely.
thanks gster.
silly me. I forgot about the numbers game.
Gang affiliation, in itself, is not a crime. They would have to show some convictions on their records.Street gangs are “sectarian” by definition, asian, mexican, skinhead, etc.I don’t think we can stop sectarian violence with people who have an allegiance to gangs over country.I am sure the problem can be fixed somehow, I am just not sure how the military is addressing the problem.I am guessing the skinheads will have trouble eating with, bathing with, the other men in the unit.I am sure many of them will wash out for the fights they get in while in training.This is tragic.Even so, we had psychopaths running Iraq prior to Saddam’s fall from power.We are better than Uday and Qusay.I hope that our Generals are pounding it into the drill instructors that this stuff cant happen and will be dealt with harshly if convicted at court marshal.These guys are still innocent until proven guilty, but it does look bad.
This is off-track, but when I was in the Nat. Guard a few years ago, I was surprised to be told that the main (then) reason for rejecting people in the Guard and the Army, was hearing loss, specifically of the low frequency type due to boom boxes, etc. That really surprised me!
“Booom box” is an ironic name. If you can’t hear “incomming” you probably don’t belong in the military.
I’ve long said that with boom boxes and other loud music that the smart person will invest in hearing aid and other ear-related businesses now that the aptly named boomers are approaching geezerhood.
Joe,”Many young criminals have a choice to choose military service or jail. Many pick the military”.
Unless things have changed drastically, you’re mistaken. Last I heard, being a “criminal” makes you ineligable for military aervice. The story about such and such being given the choice between jail time and military service is an urban myth.
The people I was refering to were 18 – 25 years old!
Well, it isn’t an urban myth. Most of the guys in my outfit who were offered juvie jail or the army turned out fine. All they needed was some discipline and leadership.
Haditha – military investigation now saying deliberate murders of 24 civilians. If I committed a crime in another country I would be extradited to that country for trial. Will these guys be extradited so that the “free and democratic” government of Iraq can try them?
Or will they get a slap on the wrist like Lt. Calley did for My Lai in VietNam?
The military’s job is to kill people and blow shit up, that why they exist. So why should we be surprised if people in the army enjoy what they do. On a side note wouldn’t people who enjoy killing and have on moral qualms about it make better soldiers than those who hesitate?
It all depends dingus: do we want to win the people over to our side or just attempt to terrorize them into submission?
Having good intentions when you blow up people’s homes and kill people isn’t going to win anybody over to our side
Good point dingus – and we wonder why they hate us.
Dennis, Juvie Jail? Come on, that’s kid stuff. I’m talking about criminals. With any kind of felony conviction, you’re not going into the military.
“Gang affiliation, in itself, is not a crime.”Under the RICO act, it is.
Ben, military investigations say some, not all, of the deaths appear to have been committed by military personel. Semantics, but that is what’s being reported.
If the GIs are charged, they should be tried by the Iraqi judicial system.
JMI used to make a habit of asking AG and DA candidates why they didnt sue street gangs under the RICO act.They usually looked at me with a blank stare.RICO has a civil as well as a criminal component. Under the civil portion, I believe that ANYONE can file a lawsuit in federal court, including state and local officials.The Supreme Court recently threw out a Planned Parenthood RICO suit against Operation Rescue, since OR was not operated for a “profit motive” as required by statute.Usually, RICO is not used against street criminals.I think it should be.So, I agree with you.However, Federal, state and local officials have been slow to use RICO against the Crips and Bloods, etc.RICO is usually used against “white collar crime.”
I forget what it was, but wasn’t some law used to make kkk membership illegal?
SteveThat would be the Ku Klux Klan act, it gave federal judges the right to haul members of that group, or really any group repressing “civil rights” into court under civil contempt charges and make them “purge” or say they would follow the law.It required a finding of animous “under color of law” which meant that the local governments had to be encouraging illegal behavior for the act to be used.This is the primary reason why Judge Patrick Kelly had all of his Operation Rescue cases overturned by the 10th Circuit.Kelly never bothered to meet the “under color of law” test.
Good WMD animation…
http://www.killsometime.com/animations/animation.asp?ID=140
My dad and a friend broke into a church in the early fifties. They were given the choice of jail or the army. My dad chosen the army and his friend chose jail. My dad spent a year in Korea and his friend do three months in jail.My dad said every time he was shot at he question if it had been a good decision. When his friend wrote and told him he was already out and working. Dad knew who had made the right decision!
Generals are now saying civil war increasingly likely.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!!!!
Way to go BushDaBum!
The flowers and the candy from the cheering throngs are on order apparently:
“In his bleakest assessment to date, Army Gen. John Abizaid, who commands U.S. forces in the Mideast, said violence between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq has reached its highest level since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Abizaid also said U.S. casualties could increase as the fighting focuses on Baghdad.
“Iraq could move toward civil war,” Abizaid told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “The sectarian violence is probably as bad as I have seen it.”
It was not the first time Abizaid and other U.S. officials have talked about a possible civil war in Iraq. However, Abizaid said the odds of such a war were greater than before.
Violence has surged in Iraq in recent months. A United Nations report released last month said about 6,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in May and June — an average of 100 a day. About the same number of civilians were wounded during that time.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-08-03-pentagon-congress_x.htm
Making new friends and spreading good cheer everyday.
They aren’t stupid when they pull the troops out of somewhere, that’s where the major attacks will occur.
why the single-minded obsession with white supremicist? there’re many gangs well represented in the military and iraq; latino, black gangs are well represented but i never hear a peep about them from the same people who (rightly)rail against so-called white supremicist gangs. most of the domestic violence this country is infamous around the world for occurs in large metro areas and is grossly disporportionately committed by non-white individuals and gangs. washington dc has declared a state of emergency because of extreme levels of violence, guess who’s committing this violence? it’s not white supremicists. why the double standard? why would any person with half a brain and experience in the world take you seriously if you are soo biased?