Army officer says won't fight in "unlawful" Iraq war

Monsoon65 · 06-07-2006, 19:30

Just saw this on Yahoo. Hope the link works.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...usa_officer_dc

**Bill Harsey** · 06-07-2006, 20:43

That's been in the regional news around here all day.

Q · 06-08-2006, 00:48

Yeah, I've been watching this on local news. Had to stop and puke on a number of ocassions. I forgot we are not a culture of warriors anymore and that we join the military to get a free ride to college. In case you haven't guessed I'm from Washington State. We join here to be an Army of One. Since when? My daughter-in-Law is a friggin' truck driver going back on her second tour. She is a little Phillipino girl that can handle a 50 cal on top of a deuce. She told my son (who put his 6 years in) she loved it and was going back. Of course being an upstanding American Male (bred on Oprah) he puked his brains out and checked his balls because his wife may have stolen them. Guys, I'm going back to Mexico.......no explanation needed. Love "Q".

incommin · 06-08-2006, 05:26

Where ever you walk you will find crap. He is just another pile!

Slantwire · 06-08-2006, 06:06

From Hawaii, apparently ethnic Japanese (probably has no familial / historical ties to the theater in question). Served one tour in Korea, and is announcing his refusal to go for his FIRST tour in Iraq.... in other words, he's never been.

And yet he "knows" that there is "...wholesale slaughter and mistreatment of the Iraqi people" and "[his] participation would make [him] party to war crimes."

Well, if he participated in wholesale slaughter and mistreatment, it would make him party to war crimes. How can he claim that such would happen? Is he so out of control that if he goes, he'll perform wholesale slaughter? Don't think that's what he's saying.

The guy's almost certainly younger than me, how is he such an expert? What does he know, how can he claim to know what's going on over there? And why does he feel the need to hold a ****ing PRESS CONFERENCE??

Shutting up.

uboat509 · 06-08-2006, 06:29

This just kills me. I can't get sent to Iraq to save my life but this asshat is refusing to go? My gut is telling me that this guy is full of crap. He is an artillery officer and now all of a sudden he has strong convictions against the war? I wouldn't be a bit suprised to find that he just discovered that he would actually have to do a dangerous assignment and this is his way of avoiding it.

SFC W

Five-O · 06-08-2006, 06:48

A little fantasy........I would bust him to E-1 and send him over as a chaplins assistant. Once his 12 month tour is over...off to prison with him.

aestreet · 06-08-2006, 07:41

This story kinda reminds me of all my friends who had joined the national guard and reserves to avoid going to war and go to school instead, boy weren't they surprised? Its sad to see a person who is supposed to be in a leadership position crap all over his guys in an attempt to make an "ethical protest".

CPTAUSRET · 06-08-2006, 07:49

I understand that there are a great many who are AWOL from their units, some missing shipment to a war zone. We can't just single this one glaring a$$hole out, we need to apprehend each one of them and utilize the UCMJ.

Then, you can Court Martial this Lt, reduce him, give him hard time, and a DD...There go his political aspirations!

Terry

Sdiver · 06-08-2006, 07:49

I hope he's tried to the fullest extent of the UCMJ and ends up in Leavenworth for the rest of his miserable life making small rocks outta big rocks.

x SF med · 06-08-2006, 08:44

Why the hell did this wimp ever join the military? How the hell could he have taken the oath if he was planning on reneging on his promise at the first possible instant. Shoot him and get it over with, this is the kind of puke that would get his men killed because he'd question the authority of those appointed over him - I'll stop now before I get myself in trouble.

edit (ok had to get this out of my system) If he's worried about being associated with wholesale slaughter and war crimes - why did he join the military? If he's a 2LT, this war was in progress when he took his commission, and if he was an ROTC scholarship student, he just did it for the $$ - honor and integrity demand that he fulfill his commitments.

**Team Sergeant** · 06-08-2006, 09:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by x_sf_med

Why the hell did this wimp ever join the military?

My guess would be to make a statement. He joined the military when we were fighting hard in Iraq. I'm betting he was just waiting for orders to Iraq so he could "refuse" to go and make headlines.

TS

Slantwire · 06-08-2006, 09:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by x_sf_med

If he's a 2LT, this war was in progress when he took his commission, and if he was an ROTC scholarship student, he just did it for the $$ - honor and integrity demand that he fulfill his commitments.

He's a 1LT, I think. The article says he joined the army in 2003. Probably started ROTC in fall 1998 assuming he could get a free degree, do four years and get out.

9/11 must have been a terrible shock for the poor boy. But not so bad that he refused a tour in Korea with soju and hazard pay. Betcha he wouldn't refuse an assignment to Germany, either.

I'm torn between saying he should be forced to go and see what the real world can be like, or saying he should be tossed in the stockade so he doesn't get anyone else killed.

**Airbornelawyer** · 06-08-2006, 10:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pinhead

He's a 1LT, I think. The article says he joined the army in 2003. Probably started ROTC in fall 1998 assuming he could get a free degree, do four years and get out.

9/11 must have been a terrible shock for the poor boy. But not so bad that he refused a tour in Korea with soju and hazard pay. Betcha he wouldn't refuse an assignment to Germany, either.

I'm torn between saying he should be forced to go and see what the real world can be like, or saying he should be tossed in the stockade so he doesn't get anyone else killed.

He was commissioned through OCS. There is no reason to suppose that his motives in seeking a commission in 2003 weren't noble and that he simple had a change of heart, or more appropriately a loss of heart, subsequently.

Notwithstanding that, I disagree with Terry and sdiver. Imprisonment or dishonorable discharge? I would proffer charges under Article 85 and Article 99, with notice to seek the death penalty. The punk thinks a simple AWOL charge would be the bad-old Army "piling on"? The soldiers under his command who go to Iraq do it knowing they are risking their lives to do their duty; if he thinks his judgment is so much better and his principles so much stronger than his superiors, he should be ready to risk his life on his little gamble as well.

CPTAUSRET · 06-08-2006, 10:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airbornelawyer

He was commissioned through OCS. There is no reason to suppose that his motives in seeking a commission in 2003 weren't noble and that he simple had a change of heart, or more appropriately a loss of heart, subsequently.

Notwithstanding that, I disagree with Terry and sdiver. Imprisonment or dishonorable discharge? I would proffer charges under Article 85 and Article 99, with notice to seek the death penalty. The punk thinks a simple AWOL charge would be the bad-old Army "piling on"? The soldiers under his command who go to Iraq do it knowing they are risking their lives to do their duty; if he thinks his judgment is so much better and his principles so much stronger than his superiors, he should be ready to risk his life on his little gamble as well.

I have np problems with seeking the death penalty in this case, just don't think it will fly! Also don't think you can single him out, when MANY are AWOL, having missed shipment, and they have not even been apprehended. I say we go after all of them, males, females, every last one of them.