05 May 2005
This sickens me

I don't like to rant, but this story made me sooo angry. Apparently these soldiers found a total of $38 MILLION dollars, and decided to keep it for themselves. What happened to honor and integrity? And not only were they morally wrong, they were stupid too--the unit has an embedded journalist who FILMED THEM doing this. Duh!!

Every branch of the military has some sort of "core values" (click here for the Army's) which invariably includes integrity. The Army defines integrity as "Do what's right, legally and morally". Yeah--I don't think this unit followed their core values on this occasion.

At least they kicked this guy out of the army, but I think he should have done brig time. The lack of integrity seems to be an Army-wide problem, remember Abu Ghraib? The ringleader claims he has "No regrets" over his actions--the actions that included abusing and humiliating fellow human beings put in his care. And these soldiers should also be taken out back and shot, or at least put in the brig for a very long time.

It's obvious the Army has a deeply rooted problem. I wonder how long it will take for someone to try to fix it? Meanwhile, the stupid, selfish and illegal actions of a few continue to taint our country's image around the world.

(to be perfectly clear, the above is my own personal opinion)


posted by Julie at 12:10 PM 4 comments

4 Comments:

Blogger carpediemtomorrow said...

Especially when the rest of the world are still watching every movement so intensely.
But to have a reporter there too.......do you need qualifications to be canon fodder?

Thu May 05, 03:11:00 PM GMT+1  
Blogger Jen said...

Wasn't this basically the plot of the movie Three Kings? They just left out the part about the "Ass Map." Oh, and that was gold, and it happened in Desert Storm. Never mind.

Thu May 05, 04:48:00 PM GMT+1  
Blogger Julie said...

Same basic idea, except I bet none of the dudes involved looked ANYTHING like George Clooney!

Thu May 05, 05:21:00 PM GMT+1  
Blogger Lora said...

I certainly understand why it pissed you off. (The following is my opinion, not necessarily something I can produce a well argued case on)It's kind of like a blind spot has been reach with morality in the military. Their choices are so directed by superior officers, that when they have to make moral decision for the themselves, some soldiers are unprepared to. Probably compounded by frustrations over the lack of improvement in current Iraqi situation.

Thu May 05, 08:52:00 PM GMT+1  

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