You never have to agree..........
Hi Sarajevo !
I am glad that you feel you understand a little more. I may later ask you to explain some things to me :) They will definitely be hard ones :D
Much like you and the fine folks herein, I also think that even one human loss is terrible, no matter how it happened.
Please continue to find those "difficult subjects" and post them for us.
Good night, Stan
Incident Under Investigation
For those following this thread, here is the latest from the UNOFFICIAL Marine Corps Times:
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news...marsoc_070420/
Bottom line, Commanding Officer and Senior Enlisted relieved of duty and sent home awaiting the results of the investigation (several other team members have also been sent home early). It would appear despite confusion around the initial reporting and chaos of the event that the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Laws of Land Warfare and U.S. Law will be fully engaged in this matter. This action is entirely in keeping with agreements between the U.S. Government and the Government of Afghanistan regarding status of forces.
It is important to remember that while the Marines in question are being investigated for a response to a suicide ambush that was initially investigated and deemed “out of proportion to the threat…” under the UCMJ, U.S. and International law there remains the Presumption of Innocence.
Further the incident took place on 4 March 2007. Today is 24 April 2007. This is a period of 50 DAYS not weeks or months. This is a speedy pursuit of truth and justice.
-T
Lest we be too quick to judge
Let's not confuse lynching in the media with culturally appropriate expressions of remorse.
Many other threads here, and elsewhere, tout IO uber alles. On at least one level, this is what it looks like in practice.
I do not see anything in the quote above (post #46) that offends my US/first world sensibilities of "innocent until proven guilty" when balanced against an Afghan culturally sensitive and appropriate acknowledgement of involvement, which is undisputed. Actually a fairly well balanced statement, at least at the bumper sticker level - involvement but not guilt or justification. I don't go for the blood money concept, but they do. How would our IO campaign look with a "let's wait for the investigation" stance. When in Rome...
Perhaps those who are following this more thoroughly see lapses at other levels. No comment there, just at this drive-by level.
On a related note, the darn nuisance with COIN is that losing and winning look so annoyingly similar at the time.