Free SGT. Derrick Miller

[Jslotter]

Just read this article today. A soldier doing the right thing gets him prison time. Click the link.
http://derrickmiller.org/case/

[Woods Walker]

Unbelievable. What is the reasoning for his conviction? I mean, it sounds pretty cut and dry to me. It's a war. People die. You job as a soldier is to make sure that YOU or any of your fellow soldiers don't die while following orders.

[Dylan]

Unbelievable. What is the reasoning for his conviction? I mean, it sounds pretty cut and dry to me. It's a war. People die. You job as a soldier is to make sure that YOU or any of your fellow soldiers don't die while following orders.

Sad story. Everyone loses. But shooting an unarmed Afghan civilian and leaving his body in a latrine is not in accordance with military protocol.

[Jslotter]

Unbelievable. What is the reasoning for his conviction? I mean, it sounds pretty cut and dry to me. It's a war. People die. You job as a soldier is to make sure that YOU or any of your fellow soldiers don't die while following orders.

Sad story. Everyone loses. But shooting an unarmed Afghan civilian and leaving his body in a latrine is not in accordance with military protocol.

The guy tried grabbing his weapon. Thats enough to engage the enemy. Did I miss the part of the story that describes the body being left in a latrine?

[Dylan]

Unbelievable. What is the reasoning for his conviction? I mean, it sounds pretty cut and dry to me. It's a war. People die. You job as a soldier is to make sure that YOU or any of your fellow soldiers don't die while following orders.

Sad story. Everyone loses. But shooting an unarmed Afghan civilian and leaving his body in a latrine is not in accordance with military protocol.

The guy tried grabbing his weapon. Thats enough to engage the enemy. Did I miss the part of the story that describes the body being left in a latrine?

Yes you did.


http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/07/a ... er-072711/

[Jslotter]

Well, there is obviously two sides of the story. When I was in Iraq. We had a set of ROE to follow for this kind of situation. Show, Shove, Shoot, Kill. Show your intention use of force by using verbal warnings and showing your weapon, shove or push away the adversary while still showing your intention, If that doesn't convince the adversary, Fire a warning shot into the air, If that does not stop the action then shoot to kill or injure. In this situation, it would have been more beneficial to immediately detain the guy, and send him in for questioning and intel. The stories I read did not give all the details about what really happened. Putting the body into a latrine though, if the intention was to hide him to keep the SGT out of trouble, then thats messed up. If the body was put into the latrine to safeguard the casualty while the SGT was putting his troops on full alert while the impending attack was about to occur, then I say he did the right thing. Maybe thats all he had at the time. Maybe thats what he thought was the right thing to do at the time. I wouldn't want to speculate what was right and wrong because I wasn't there. The situation was hairy, Im sure he was concerned for the welfare of himself and his troops. This insurgent obviously was questioned harshly, because he was somewhere where he wasn't supposed to be, and had intentions to harm US troops and US property. Whether the insurgent tried to reach for his weapon was not explained in the Army times article. Was the insurgent trying to evade detainment? Who knows? Another reason I never read the Army Times.

[Dylan]

Another reason I never read the Army Times.

LOL. No doubt a tough call and we don't have the full story here behind our keyboards. It must have been a tough tough job to make life and death decisions like that every day. You can't trust anyone.