"Proud to be an American" / RS' "The Kill Team"

[Kulindahr]

Hmmmm, I come back to the site to see reason has prevailed over irrational and emotional thoughts.

Yeah, but you can count those instances on the fingers of both feet.

 

[Lostlover]

This is the redneck anthem I wanted to include in the first post but YouTube was down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RINqibpWOzQ

 

[Lostlover]

BTW, I'll add here something I've said before: any illegal immigrants who can learn English well enough should be given the option of serving like six years in the military, and be a citizen afterward. We could have another hundred thousand troops to work with, and the National Guard could go back to being what it's supposed to be.
So long as they had no records, immigrants are often better material for loyalty to country than long-time residents.

Great. Now we have to outsource wars. America's pastime, fucking up other countries, now is going to have an international flavor to it.

We'll offer you citizenship if you fight for some fictitious cause paid for by money we don't have and championed by people who rejected the military in their youths.

Sounds like a great plan.

I've said it before, if you voted for Bush twice and are under 65, America should give you boots and a gun to serve in the army.

 

[Kulindahr]

Great. Now we have to outsource wars. America's pastime, fucking up other countries, now is going to have an international flavor to it.

We'll offer you citizenship if you fight for some fictitious cause paid for by money we don't have and championed by people who rejected the military in their youths.

Sounds like a great plan.

I've said it before, if you voted for Bush twice and are under 65, America should give you boots and a gun to serve in the army.

Better to have illegals doing it than to rip National Guard people away from their families to go on imperial jaunts that aren't what they sign up for. We need a law that says the Guard is for guarding the U.S., not traipsing around the world when a president gets an itch for a military adventure.

 

[Stardreamer]

Great. Now we have to outsource wars. America's pastime, fucking up other countries, now is going to have an international flavor to it.

We'll offer you citizenship if you fight for some fictitious cause paid for by money we don't have and championed by people who rejected the military in their youths.

Sounds like a great plan.

I've said it before, if you voted for Bush twice and are under 65, America should give you boots and a gun to serve in the army.

Worked for France, why not a US Foreign Legion? It is a logical way to kill two birds with one stone, a path to US citizenship and military recruiting.

 

[opinterph]

Video of soldiers shooting two Afghan men in cold blood. I was so waiting for the faggot bomb to have been dropped since it was two men innocently riding their bikes

Innocently riding their bikes?

I watched the videos. One involved shooting a couple of armed motorcyclists.

I did complain about shooting two men, armed or unarmed, on their motorcycles in their own country. I thought soldiers are only supposed to shoot when a gun is aimed at them?

There was only one motorcycle in the incident. The two men were Taliban fighters.

The problem was [the fact that the video involving the shooting of a couple of armed motorcyclists] was filmed and passed around.

The video was filmed as a part of routine combat procedure. Such videos are passed around among the troops and reviewed as a means of assessing battlefield performance and to provide instructive guidance for future operations. The real problem here is that Rolling Stone used a copy of the video to embellish their reporting of an unrelated incident and thereby promote a deception. The motorcycle incident took place during an intense operation in Arghandab near Kandahar City – far from the so-called “kill team.” The rider on the back of the bike pointed his AK toward the US soldiers as the bike sped toward them, but the rider had failed to chamber a round ahead of time – so whether he actually pulled the trigger or not, the weapon didn’t fire. It is also relevant to note that motorcycles in Afghanistan are often equipped for suicide bomb delivery. When one is speeding toward you – you don’t wait to see the flash from the muzzle of the pointed weapon, nor do you wait until it explodes.

My assessment represents agreement with the conclusion of combat journalist, Michael Yon, which he based upon an extensive discussion with several of the soldiers who were there when the incident happened.

Calling BULLSHIT on Rolling Stone​

 

[Kulindahr]

Worked for France, why not a US Foreign Legion? It is a logical way to kill two birds with one stone, a path to US citizenship and military recruiting.

I like it -- totally separate entity from Army, etc.

 

[Lostlover]

My assessment represents agreement with the conclusion of combat journalist, Michael Yon, which he based upon an extensive discussion with several of the soldiers who were there when the incident happened.

Calling BULLSHIT on Rolling Stone​

They didn't implicate themselves and they're off the hook in your eyes?

I haven't read this link, yet. However it's going to take a lot for me to reconsider the calculated cold blooded murders that led one sociopath to get 24 years in a military prison.

Just finished reading: Bad video if I take
"Michael Yon" at face value (More like text value since I've only read an article by him.) Can he explain away the meat and potatoes of the article? The killing of an innocent 15 year old boy and countless of other innocent and unarmed civilians?

 

[opinterph]

Will someone please read the article too? It's a good read.

I'm a patient guy.

 

[Kulindahr]

I'd have to say, at this point, that Rolling Stone screwed up but has a kernel of horrifying truth -- as Michael Yon said.

 

[Lostlover]

Breakdown in Discipline Left "Kill Team" Unchecked- http://m.spiegel.de/international/world/a-754952.html

Evidently, this isn't a system problem. Just a few bad apples.

 

[Stardreamer]

Breakdown in Discipline Left "Kill Team" Unchecked- http://m.spiegel.de/international/world/a-754952.html

Evidently, this isn't a system problem. Just a few bad apples.

No the bad apples are the guilty ones but it is a system failure as well as the article illustrates, the circumstances that allowed such activity shows a breakdown in the chain of command and unit discipline. The Commander in charge of this unit and probably some of the officers under him will be disciplined and will most likely never hold a combat command again.

 

[Kulindahr]

Breakdown in Discipline Left "Kill Team" Unchecked- http://m.spiegel.de/international/world/a-754952.html

Evidently, this isn't a system problem. Just a few bad apples.

Sounds like one bad apple who was contagious. Somewhere along the line Colonel Tunnell went from promising to angry and uncaring. His attitude didn't just let this happen, but encouraged it.

It's a testimony to the professionalism of the Army that this wasn't far worse.