Because of such deliberate indifference at the top of the military command structure, the men and women in the lower ranks are being recycled through Iraq and Afghanistan over and over, and the potential for serious psychological problems at some future time becomes greater and greater with each combat tour. ... A year, or five or ten years from now--just as in the post-Vietnam 1970's and '80's--there is going to be a group of war veterans in trouble with the criminal law because of PTSD, and they are going to need knowledgeable, effective legal representation and, by then, as was the case with the Vietnam vets, the world will have forgotten the war, and the warriors will be pretty much on their own.

-- More than a half-century after hostilities ended in Korea, a document from the war's chaotic early days has come to light _ a letter from the U.S. ambassador to Seoul, informing the State Department that American soldiers would shoot refugees approaching their lines. The letter _ dated the day of the Army's mass killing of South Korean refugees at No Gun Ri in 1950 _ is the strongest indication yet that such a policy existed for all U.S. forces in Korea, and the first evidence that that policy was known to upper ranks of the U.S. government.

Estimates vary on the number of dead at No Gun Ri. American soldiers' estimates ranged from under 100 to "hundreds" dead; Korean survivors say about 400, mostly women and children, were killed at the village 100 miles southeast of Seoul, the South Korean capital. Hundreds more refugees were killed in later, similar episodes, survivors say.

The No Gun Ri killings were documented in a Pulitzer Prize-winning story by The Associated Press in 1999, which prompted a 16-month Pentagon inquiry. The Pentagon concluded that the No Gun Ri shootings, which lasted three days, were "an unfortunate tragedy" _ "not a deliberate killing." It suggested panicky soldiers, acting without orders, opened fire because they feared that an approaching line of families, baggage and farm animals concealed enemy troops.

her head was blown off and her brain splattered on his boots."

I've never seen a person with their head blown off, so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but it just doesn't seem to make sense to me

So just remember that presently many on the thread is involved in spasms of self hatred.

draftees sort of have to be convinced that what they're being asked to do is the right thing, otherwise, they get testy. volunteers are just assumed to agree, and are expected to follow orders without question.

USA should be a beacon of freedom and human rights, and the media is not portraying us in that light.

what's funny is that the two wingnuts can't keep on the subject matter

The Marines will be tried, evidence presented and if found guilty they will be sentenced accordingly

Meanwhile those who bomb the marketplace are given a look-away pass by many people.

Needless to say that those who agree with George Galloway devalue Iraqi innocents at the hands of Saddam and the current insurgency.

I wouldn't be suprised if the Marines get a more dignified trial and most likely a longer sentence for thier crimes than Saddam gets.

What I love about lefty trolls

...but i think a good start would be to re-implement the draft. start putting every family at risk, instead of only those who volunteer. how else to know whether the country truly supports mr. bush's foreign policy?

Terrorists bomb on a regular basis in Iraq and that is Bush's fault. He made them do it. At least that seems to be your implication.

Truth is, we need Universal Military Service. If you live here, you serve here.

Maybe Wilhelm Reich was right, some people are hard-wired for fascism.

there weren't terrorists in iraq until bush invaded.

Injustice is relatively easy to bear. What stings is justice.

H. L. Mencken