Gaurdsmen Cleared of Charges — Well, Sort of
BY Herschel Smith
18 years, 4 months ago
In “Haditha Hoax and Future Knee-Jerk Reactions,” I mentioned two Gaurdsmen who were being considered for charges of manslaughter. They have been cleared — sort of. Reuters is reporting:
BAGHDAD – The U.S. military has cleared a soldier of unlawfully killing an Iraqi civilian after investigators concluded Specialist Nathan Lynn had reason to believe the man was carrying a gun when he opened fire.
But there is still something outstanding on this whole issue.
The military spokesman said commanders had yet to decide whether to refer Ortiz to court martial on the conspiracy charge. Ortiz is also charged with a separate offence on March 8 of threatening an Iraqi with a weapon.
According to the story, Ortiz had reason to believe that an Iraqi individual had intelligence regarding a credible threat to the safety of our troops. He then took an unloaded weapon and held it to the head of the individual in an attempt to obtain that information.
At the time I said that if U.S. troops believe that an individual has intelligence regarding a credible threat to our troops, and threatens that individual in an attempt to obtain that intelligence, I support it. Of course I would.
I still do. Of course I do. This is war. What do people think happens in war? Someone (i.e., the Iraqi individual) was under emotional duress. So what? What I want to know is this: did we get the information we wanted?
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