Folks, let’s put this into perspective shall we? The guy was a driver. A driver, not an engineering expert. Not a Demolitions expert, he was a driver.

The jury was made up of officers, who don’t drive themselves anywhere. They all have drivers assigned to them in command of a unit. A lowly Lieutenant has a driver assigned to him. The driver is usually a fairly squared away soldier, but not part of the command structure. It’s not like you take Audie Murphy out of the line and put him into the drivers seat for the Supply Officer.

While there is a meeting going on, the Driver stays out side and waits. He doesn’t go inside to check out the maps and offer his considered opinion on the operations. He drives the freaking car. You want thirty years to life for Hitler’s driver? You want Thirty Years to life for Stalin’s driver?

Good Lord people talk about unforgiving. You may want to consider that the Officers who judged this case understand the role of the upper ranks, and the lower ranks in an organization.

We caught a small time thief, and you want to treat him like Al Capone.

Guys, it’s the Military doing the judgment. By now, each of these officers has had to decide what punishment an individual should get. Each Company Commander in the Army or Marines spends some time considering punishment for any offenses in their unit. Not every guy who’s late to formation gets fifteen years of hard labor for his infraction.

Guys, when you catch a mastermind, treat him like a Mastermind, demand the infinitely long sentence. When you catch a small time punk crook, keep in mind you didn’t catch the Mastermind, and the small time punk crook is a small time punk crook. I’d like to think you guys wouldn’t sentence every jaywalking offender to 30 years of hard labor, but then again, you just might.

Snake307 on August 7, 2008 at 6:41 PM

Time served while 3000 innocent Americans get the death penalty on 9/11. If this is the way we are going to “fight” then this war is going to be a very very long one. Ironic isn’t it? 63 years ago today our fathers grandfathers and great grandfathers dealt very differently with an enemy who used suicide bombers. After turning Hiroshima into a hole in the ground the day before, they were waiting for word that the Empire of Japan had surrendered. They gave them 3 days to give it up and when it didn’t happen the enemy woke up August 9th to find Nagasaki missing.

Dollayo on August 7, 2008 at 11:10 PM

Yet after the war with Japan, only the commanders were put to death, most of those who were tried for war crimes got fairly light sentences. That was for years of abuse, starvation, murders, rapes, and a host of other crimes including medical testing on humans.

We didn’t try Tojo’s driver, and we didn’t try the pilots who helped plan the Pearl Harbor attack. We didn’t try every soldier Japan had for war crimes. We unlike the Germans who invaded Belgium and France in 1914 and again in 1940 don’t do group reprisals. We do everything possible to make sure that Justice fits the crimes. Even the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima was not just to test the bomb, but demoralize and destroy the Japanese willingness to continue the war. It worked. It had a military objective that was quantifiable.

After the war, we treated the Japanese people with respect. We didn’t try each and every German Citizen for the atrocities of the Genocide programs of Hitler. We didn’t sentence each German citizen to death for their crimes of supporting Hitler and the war. Apparently, we are going to have a different standard for this war. Now, if we don’t kill you on the battlefield, we’ll execute you later for even daring to resist us.

For the record, that technique was done by Germany in both wars. By Japan as well. It bred more resistance instead of less. An example, in one night, the Norwegian Resistance fighters cut the Train Tracks in a thousand different locations all over the nation. Screwed up transportation for weeks.

This war may degenerate to the point where we have to kill each and every Muslim in the world. I hope it doesn’t, I honestly do pray it doesn’t get to that point. If it does, we deserve all the scorn history chooses to say about it.

I would prefer to try and demonstrate that we are as understanding as we are deadly. We don’t hold privates responsible for the actions of Generals. We hold the Private responsible for his own actions. Restraint is as important as response. We must use force to protect our citizens. When we capture a fighter, by demonstrating that we’re going to apply justice with an even and fair hand, we make it more possible instead of less that we’ll get the enemy to turn against their leaders.

I know you doubt me. In Iraq in 1991, whole units surrendered partially from the bombing. Mostly from the draftee’s who had some personal first hand knowledge about Americans, and what they wouldn’t do despite the propaganda from Saddam. By being the rule following American’s always, we saw whole units sitting by the road without any weapons in sight waiting patiently to surrender. How about the enemy who happily surrendered to a helicopter?

Do you think that the enemy will consider surrendering if they know, they know, that we will execute them no matter the severity of their crimes? No, we’ll be back in the Pacific, on Saipan. Marines had tears in their eyes as they watched the Japanese civilians leap to their deaths on Banzai Cliff. These tough men literally wept to see women, children, and old people dying rather than be captured, and they believed tortured and executed as well as dishonored.

This war on Terror may get to that point, where we can’t risk allowing even the women and children to live. If it does, I personally weep for mankind. We will have become what we detest. We will have become the enemy of an entire race.

As I said, it is possible, not likely that will happen. Eventually one side or the other must stop fighting. If neither side is willing to surrender, and I am not willing for our side to surrender, then the war must go on. If the enemy chooses and our own bungling of the message creates a situation where we can’t allow any muslim to live, then mankind is in very dire straights indeed.

I will not become Muslim. Not even to save my life. I will not submit to Sharia law. I believe in personal individual freedom, and I’ve fought for my beliefs. If it gets to that point, where it’s literally us, or them. Then it will not be us who surrenders.

Snake307 on August 8, 2008 at 12:11 AM