Objectively speaking: was this mercy killing justified?

[charleslanger]

whattayoustink?

Previous military court hearings have heard that several troops fired on a group of Iraqi men placing homemade bombs along a road in Sadr City. Soldiers from the same battalion arrived on the scene to find a burning truck and casualties around it.

According to witnesses, the soldiers, including Horne, tried to rescue an Iraqi casualty from inside the truck. The victim had severe abdominal wounds and burns, and was thought by several of the men to be beyond help.

The criminal investigator had said the US soldiers had decided "the best course of action was to put (the victim) out of his misery".

Earlier this week, a US Army officer used a similar defence, saying he had carried out a "mercy killing".

It is against the Geneva Convention to shoot wounded combatants. Capt Rogelio Maynulet was ordered to face a full court martial for the murder in May of a man wounded as troops pursued Sadr militiamen near Najaf

 

[docmercer--banned]

according to bblight and others:

If this was an American and Iraqi soldiers had done this, they are low life scum who should burn in hell ...

But since it is Americans and its a low life "Camel Jockey" or other class words I have heard Bushies like bblight utter, it is probably justified as they are helping Bush to spread "Democracy"

Get our boys home as this war is idiotic and these brave young kids dont deserve to be in this hellhole of a war that was based on lies by this administration

 

[xpanda]

I happen to be a proponent of euthanasia, so can believe that from time to time soldiers may encounter scenarios such as this. But morally justified or not, this kind of thing cannot be allowed to happen. It's setting a precedent that can be argued in the event of any wounded prisoner being killed. Slippery slope.

 

[bblight]

Theres's a difference between killing a wounded enemy who might be boobytrapped, and killing a wounded enemy who is incapable of any action, and hasn't been boobytrapped - The soldier is trained to make the distinction between the two - he should just have let the enemy soldier die.

Draft dodging cowards like Doc have never seen violent death up close and personal, so they just make smart assed remarks on a forum like this - protected by that very soldier who thought he might be saving a fellow human being from a lot of oain before he died.

Doc - you've never had the guts to fight in battle - so you just cry and ***** about it on internet forums.

 

[Marco]

"Draft dodging cowards"......I hear this term thrown around rather loosely and applied to nearly everyone that is against war.....it doesn't seem to matter the justification behind fighting a war or going to war, or the top brass plans or motives behind the fighting....

Somehow people are either in the camp that says the government is correct just because they are the government and blind patriotism should rule, or they are some "draft dodging coward" because they don't believe in the reasons for fighting or the way things are being carried out.

When are we going to go after OBL and drop all these dreams of nation building and democracy in the middle east?

The government can't keep it's priorities straight, and sadly it will take another strike by the real terrorists to wake the US politicians up to the fact that the real threat is not being eliminated.

Drop all these dreams of peaceniks habitating the middle east and take care of business.

 

[docmercer--banned]

bblight Coulter:

I was never drafted as the draft dissolved before my time ...

For a man that masturbates with the images of AWOL Bush and 5 Deferment Cheney in his mind every nite, I think you have little room to talk about anything

Notice ya a bit upset, Coulter ... I guess I got you figured out pretty well: again, if this was an American shot by Iraqis you would be screaming to nuke em .. reverse the roles and bblight Coulter looks the other way and starts rambling his idotic comments

 

[bblight]

Charleslanger - I think that the UCMJ should take over and this incident should continue on to its military conclusion. The soldiers are trained not to do this - and the training is regularly re-enforced. The military courts will take care of this.


Doc - Masturbation? Was I wearing black leather when you dredged this image out of your sick mind? Did you find this image sensual? Jesus Doc, we're talking politics here, not sex; they have special websites for people like you, who need images to help them get to whatever sick place they want to go. Please leave me out of your dreams!

 

[docmercer--banned]

bblight:

You live in your little wacko fantasy, Neo-Con world ...

You fit the Neo-Con Membership requirements soooo perfectly:

"I, BBligth Coulter, do swear to uphold the Bush doctrine that is it Junior's God given rights to invade whatever country is needed to spread democracy. It is Junior's God given rights to drop Nukes whenever President Cheney has an itching ... I will swear as a good Little Bushie to believe that VP Bush stands for morals and that his tight relatioship with Enron CEO "Kenny Boy" Lay is nothing but an attempted smear job by Al Franken ... I will swear that I salute VP Bush outsourcing jobs overseas as he said "it is good for America" and VP Bush is a great American who only went AWOL during the Vietnam War due to cocaine useage ... I will listen to Rush Limbaugh each day for 3 hrs as Limbaugh is brilliant and between trips to the Denny's Parking Lot to buy illegal drugs he is able to give me some very educated viewpts on why I as an American are far superior in every aspect to any Japanese, Chinaman, Russian or Iraqi - Limbaugh said it is our "God given right to run the oil fields in Iraq" and is a great man who only told that black man on the air "to take the bone out of your nose and call me back" as an attempt at humor to show the Bushies can interface with all types of humans ... I will swear that I truely believe Bush is a truely moral man and that his membership in the Satanic cult known as the "Skull & Bones" Society is just another attempt by Al Franken to discredit this great man ... I will swear as a member of the "Bushie Cult" to do no thinking on my own and if President Cheney says it is Un-American, then by God it must be as President Cheney is truely one of the great leaders in the history of Mankind !"