Comments | ontd_political: Soldier found guilty of murdering Afghans

__lunabelle in ontd_political

Soldier found guilty of murdering Afghans

Nov 10, 2011 20:39

A military court-martial Thursday found Army Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs guilty of murdering three Afghan civilians, illegally cutting off pieces of their corpses to keep as "souvenirs" and planting weapons to make the men appear as if they were Taliban fighters killed in legitimate firefights ( Read more... )

murder, afghanistan, military, fuck this guy, army, justice

Comments 12

maenads_dance November 11 2011, 12:53:43 UTC

I remember reading about this case in Rolling Stone a while ago.

This is part of the nature of war; anyone who's surprised by this should sit and reflect about the long history of military atrocities. Every nation, of course, tries to justify its own wars by holding its own military up as a paragon of virtue, fighting against people who are, if not evil, then ignorant, dirty, benighted. You don't really have one without the other. And the natural byproduct of this kind of thinking is soldiers who "go rogue" - ie, do what soldiers have always done, before and after the Geneva Convention.

I'm not saying that all soldiers do this - it's more subtle than that. All soldiers are told they are part of the greatest, most honorable, military on earth; and as a result, many come to believe in the inhumanity of their opponents, and some act on that belief.

jugglingeggs November 11 2011, 12:56:01 UTC

No punishment is severe enough.

screamingintune November 11 2011, 13:09:36 UTC

oh my. :/ He sounds like a Charles Manson type, the charismatic serial killer with followers.

intrikate88 November 11 2011, 14:16:50 UTC

Exactly. I was kind of surprised to not see the words 'serial killer' mentioned in this article. Even if you do it in Afghanistan, it's still the same thing.

screamingintune November 11 2011, 14:18:26 UTC

yeah and the fact that he's taking trophies? Sounds like a serial killer who found a good outlet for what he's doing, I don't think you can blame this on being typical military behavior at all.

intrikate88 November 11 2011, 14:21:00 UTC

Exactly. Military culture has its issues, but this sounds much more like a case of someone who found an opportunity to kill without a strong possibility of dire consequences.

Thread 8

erunamiryene November 11 2011, 15:22:13 UTC

And this kind of shit is why I yelled at Marines complaining about our pre-deployment classes. WE HAVE THEM FOR A GODDAMN REASON.

I mean, obviously this guy didn't give a shit, but THEY'RE THERE FOR A REASON.

echoandsway November 11 2011, 21:23:02 UTC

"I was numb to the situation," Gibbs told the court about why he taken the body parts. "I wasn't thinking; it's sickening. I am embarrassed."...
"People wanted to prove they were there," Gibbs replied when asked by his attorney why the soldiers took the photos...Gibbs appeared shocked after the verdict was read"

He has no idea, really, why it was an atrocity, does he. He has no idea how other people -- with consciences -- view this. "Embarrassed"? He is "embarrassed"? He thinks the photo-taking is a simple matter of...what? Sightseeing? He really doesn't know at all that what he and the others did is wrong, only that other people think it's wrong, and his "embarrassment" is because he got caught out at it. He's right -- he wasn't thinking; if he had been thinking *as he does*, he would have taken precautions in not getting caught. That he said he "wasn't thinking" is telling too: there is nothing else within him that would have said, "this is wrong, or at least criminal," only calculation of how it would be perceived by others. He ( ... )