While the Bush administration and its Congressional allies were occupied domestically with contriving extraordinary legal maneuvers to prevent the death of a single American woman in a persistent vegetative state, over in Iraq, Capt. Rogelio Maynulet defended his decision to kill an unarmed and wounded Iraqi as "an honorable thing to do"; an act of merciful euthanasia in which the benevolent Capt.felt compelled "to put him out of his misery."
From Yahoo! News:
Taking the stand for the first time, Capt. Rogelio "Roger" Maynulet, 30, described the events that led him to fire twice upon the Iraqi, maintaining that the man was too badly injured to survive.
Cpt. Maynulet offers no medical justification for his assertion that the man was too badly injured to survive. But then, of course, he's no Bill Frist. Nor did the gentle Capt. even bother to contact the Congressman before undertaking this most recent Iraqi "mercy killing."
He was in a state that I didn't think was justified -- I had to put him out of his misery," Maynulet said. He argued that the killing "was the right thing to do, it was the honorable thing to do."
"PAngOins is practically chickens, and I hate to see a pAngOin cry so much, that I hasta' put 'em otta' d'er misery," eh Capt.?
Maynulet is being court-martialed on a charge of assault with intent to commit murder in the May 21, 2004, killing near Kufa, south of Baghdad. He has pleaded not guilty to the charge, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and his lawyers have argued that his actions were in line with the Geneva Conventions on the code of war.
And from
USA Today:
Defense attorneys maintain that Maynulet, convinced the man would not live, shot him to end his suffering.
Exactly which passage in the Geneva conventions authorizes the practice of involuntarily euthanazing wounded and unarmed enemy combatants has not been clarified, however.
Maynulet's 1st Armored Division tank company had been on patrol near Kufa when it was alerted to a car believed to be carrying a driver for radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and another militiaman loyal to the Shiite cleric.
They chased the vehicle and fired at it, wounding both the passenger, who fled and was later apprehended, and the driver. The killing was filmed by a U.S. drone surveillance aircraft.
Maynulet appeared relaxed and spoke confidently, recounting the events in great detail.
Questions from the six-member panel -- the equivalent of a civilian jury -- focused on whether Maynulet tried to hide his actions by failing to report the shooting at the end of the day. Maynulet said he discussed the shooting in a debriefing that immediately followed the mission and denied trying to hide the killing.
He further testified that, as company commander, he had more important priorities on the mission than saving the Iraqi, including searching for two escaped passengers and maintaining the safety of his men.
Stating the obvious,
Cattan, a district council chairman at the time, described him as "a good soldier and a good officer." Asked about Maynulet's attitude toward Iraqis, Cattan said: "He is very compassionate."
Well, there y'are kids,"compassionate conservatism" and the "culture of life" in action!!