Imagine for second going into any poor neighborhood with high unemployment in the USA and placing a Twenty Dollar Bill on the ground for all to see. Next imagine it's legal to shoot anyone that bends over to pick up that Twenty. Does that idea shock your civilized mind like it did mine ? That is basicly what goes on in Iraq every day. This behavior even has it's own name, it's known as "Baiting", similar to chumming the water when fishing.
A Pentagon group has encouraged some U.S. military snipers in Iraq to target suspected insurgents by scattering pieces of "bait," such as detonation cords, plastic explosives and ammunition, and then killing Iraqis who pick up the items, according to military court documents.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Making a Sniper Judge, Jury, and Executioner for the crime of picking up something that could feed a starving family for a week just doesn't sound right. What makes this even more horrific is that the Soldiers are placing the "bait" in plain sight. In America we call this type of behavior by our cops entrapment and it is illegal as hell. You don't need to take my word for it that this is just plain wrong.
Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said such a baiting program should be examined "quite meticulously" because it raises troubling possibilities, such as what happens when civilians pick up the items.
"In a country that is awash in armaments and magazines and implements of war, if every time somebody picked up something that was potentially useful as a weapon, you might as well ask every Iraqi to walk around with a target on his back," Fidell said.
I should be shocked by this but the sad fact is I'm not. Not much that Bushs advisors do anymore can shock my war weary mind. After writing storys on Torture, Kidnapping, Murders and so many other War Crimes since this war started I have become semi-numb to whole repulsive deal. That said it appears this type of behavior is done because our Troops now have quotas of kills to meet. What better way than to set up a speedtrap by placing a Speed Limit sign that says the limit is 60mph and 10 ft later hiding another sign behind a bush that says the limit is 35mph and the punishment for speeding is Death. How many of us have driven thru a speedtrap before ? I know I have paid my fair share of tickets for this type of crap but I got to walk away just a little poorer, not dead. As if this is not bad enough, it does get even worse.
Sandoval and his sniper team stopped for the night in a concealed "hide" in the village of Jurf as Sakhr along the Euphrates River. While other snipers slept, Hensley watched as an Iraqi man, Genei Nesir Khudair, slowly approached the hide. He radioed to Didier, then a first lieutenant, for permission to go for a "close kill."
"I told him that as the ground forces commander, I would authorize that if it was necessary," Didier testified. "And about five minutes later, he told me that he had indeed killed the individual."
The U.S. military alleges that Vela, on Hensley's order, shot the Iraqi man twice in the head with a 9mm pistol after he had been taken into custody. It was Vela's first kill, and he was visibly shaken. "He looked weird," Sgt. Robert Redfern testified. "Just messed up from it. How would you feel if you had to shoot someone?"
" In "Custody" means the man had been arrested and was unarmed when shot twice in the head. This brought to mind some of the pictures I saw during the Vietnam War of blindfolded, kneeling civilians shot in the head that we saw in Life magazine. It was wrong then and it's just as wrong now.
Capt. Craig Drummond, the attorney for the soldier being charged with this murder is proclaiming his innocence. "Literally, they have charged this guy with two murders when on both occasions he was just doing his job," Drummond said." The Washington Post article ends with this final paragraph. As you read it think back on just who is the man in charge in Iraq, the Gen. that held all of our country captive waiting for his honorable opinion of the truth in Iraq. The General who is ultimately responsible for the behavior and actions of his troops.
"It's an injustice that is being done to them," Carnahan said. "I feel like you can't prosecute our soldiers for acts of war and threaten them with years and years of confinement when this program, if it comes to the light of day, was clearly coming from higher levels. . . . All those people who said 'go use this stuff' just disappeared, like they never sanctioned it."
Betrayed Us or his own troops and those he is charged with protecting is the question that keeps running thru my mind.