U.S. soldier under arrest for grenade attack. UPDATE: Please re-read original post.

[luv2nascar]

just sitting back with my caffeine free coke reading this one
good day

 

[PRINCESS Ariel34]

Originally posted by Luv2Roam
Timothy McVie and Saddam are someone kid too. We all are. Your point?

I understand where this is going

When a person has a LYNCH MOB MENTALITY, vengence is obviously the only thing they see.

 

[Eeyore2U]

Originally posted by PRINCESS Ariel34
I understand where this is going

When a person has a LYNCH MOB MENTALITY, vengence is obviously the only thing they see.

Do you? Since when is justice vengeance? Should crimes go unpunished?

Now your is not necessary but can you for the sake of discussion explain why this is a "lynch mob mentality?"

The young man killed and maimed others, what is your solution to the situation??

 

[I <3 Eeyore]

I can feel sorry for his parents but I don't give a rat's *** how he feels or what he was thinking. He killed and wounded his fellow soldiers with a cowardly, traitorous act of violence. Explain to me again why we should feel sorry for him?

 

[Luv2Roam]

I'm sure the families of those he killed and injured will be relieved someone feels sorry for the killer/attacker.
I could have maybe at least understood if he had gone AWOL or refused to fight.

 

[Poohbear123]

I don;t give a Rats*** what he was feeling EITHER! I DO CARE how the Parents of those killed and injured are feeling! Prayers go ou to THEM!

 

[Jeff in BigD]

Originally posted by PRINCESS Ariel34
Would you feel like this if it were your child. Better yet how would you feel if you heard people saying this about your child.

If it were my child, I'd feel no different than I would if Ted Bundy were my son. Complete shame. I'd have no problem with justice being carried out.

 

[PRINCESS Ariel34]

Originally posted by Eeyore2U
Do you? Since when is justice vengeance? Should crimes go unpunished?

Now your is not necessary but can you for the sake of discussion explain why this is a "lynch mob mentality?"

The young man killed and maimed others, what is your solution to the situation??

Since I don't have a thirst for blood, death would not be the answer. So many are so quick to jump the gun when something happens. KILL KILL KILL!!!!! isn't that right

If it's not BLOW HIS BRAINS OUT or PUT A BULLET THRU HIS HEAD it's going to be something with bloodshed which imho is a LYNCH MOB MENTALLITY.

As far as me having a solution, I don't have one. It could be due to the fact that I'm here and he's there fighting to stay alive not knowing if he or others are going to make back home to see their love ones. It could be the fact that he lost it.
Some people laugh at that fact.

What I find funny is that we are not in these soldiers shoes. We don't have missiles flying over our heads. We are not being shot at. Yet people want to give there 2cent about what should be done when some have no CLUE what these people are going thru.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Originally posted by ***********


UPDATE: I just want to share with you what I was thinking of when I heard this report...

This is a letter written to Erma Bombeck and printed in her book, Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession.
________________________________
Dear Erma,

You feel like my best friend. The only thing that surprised me was to find out that I am taller than you.

Anyway, I have something I want to talk to you about. There is no solution to this. I just want to let you know we exist, we are human too and we hurt with the helplessness I can't begin to describe.

I belong to a group of people that doesn't even know it's a group. We have no organization, no meetings, no spokespersons, we don't even know each other. Each of us, as individuals, are way in the back of the closet with the rats and cockroaches. We may not even be any different from our neighbors. We look the same, talk and act the same, yet when people know our secret, they shun us as lepers.

We are the parents of criminals. We too love our children. We too tried to bring them up the best way we knew how. There is small solace in reading of a movie star or politician's kid being arrested. It helps but little to realize that our pain is not confined to the poor. (Although studies have shown that a rich kid is more likely to be sent home with a reprimand from the police, where a poor kid will wind up in jail.)

We are the visitors. Mother's Day, Christmas, our kids cannot come to us, so we go to them. For some of us, the hurt is so unbearable, we cut out the cause - we give up on them. Some parents don't visit, don't write, don't acknowledge the living being they bore.

I have not yet given up on my son, though the court has. I still cry, and plead, and encourage and pray. And I still love him.

I search my memory. Where did I fail him? My son was planned, wanted, and was exactly the all-around kid I had hoped for. I spent lots of time with him, reading stories, going for walks, playing catch, teaching him to fly a kite. We went to church together every Sunday since he was 4. He did all right in school and his teachers liked him. He had lots of friends, and they were always playing ball or going fishing, all the regular kid things. He was on Little League. I went to every game. He won a trophy for All-Stars. He was just a regular kid.

That's only one. Mine. There are thousands of them. Criminals with ordinary childhoods. We, their parents, trying to live ordinary lives. And maybe being ostracized by family members and certainly by society. ("Maybe it's contageous!")

Tomorrow is Mother's Day. My son is running from the police. I didn't do it, I don't condone it, nor try to justify what he did. But I still love him, and it hurts.

I hope you can find room in your heart to accept us, who love the children society hates.

I'm sure you understand why I just cannont put my name. Thanks for letting me get it off my chest.

"Mom"
____________________________________

I just hope we have compassion for this soldier's parents. Thanks for reading.

I believe this is the point PA is trying to make. We should have compassion for the soldier's parents.

 

[DonnaS]

I think that he could have "cracked" even though the war is only days old. However, the fact that he was recently reprimanded for insubordination and told he was told he wouldn't be able to accompany his unit when it left for Iraq makes me think he probably didn't "crack."

I want to think he cracked though, because I just can't understand someone doing this otherwise. I guess it is my own denial...

I feel for those injured and killed, their families, and the family of the accused. I don't think it is impossible to feel for all involved and feeling for the family of the accused does not lessen my sympathies for the others affected.

 

[Jeff in BigD]

PRINCESS Ariel34,
All I can say is that I certainly hope you're never in a situation where your life depends on trusting in other people & then to have that trust violated, then having doubts about the very people you've entrusted your lives to.


Oh, I'm sure he'll get his trial. We'll hear all about the racism against Muslim-Americans, which no doubt caused him to snap. I only hope that regardless of the smokescreens, justice is carried out.


The fact that we're not talking about him in past tense I think speaks volumes of the restraint of the Armed Forces. Personally, if it was one of my buddies that he killed, I'd probably kill him myself & take the court marshall.

 

[SuiteDisney]

Thank you, disneyjunkie.

 

[Grog]

he was told he wouldn't be able to accompany his unit when it left for Iraq makes me think he probably didn't "crack."

I agree. Being left behind (if it was done as a punishment) when his unit went into Iraq would be a career killer should he decide to stay in the Army. He was probably either after revenge or hoping to cause enough confusion that the punishment would be forgotten and he could go with his unit. As for "cracking"... yeah, maybe, but highly unlikely this early into the war. As for punishment, I say turn him over to the buddies of the guy who died. If they choose to do nothing, then I can accept that. I somehow doubt they would engage in a cry and hugfest where they view him as being the "victim" in all this.

The fact that we're not talking about him in past tense I think speaks volumes of the restraint of the Armed Forces. Personally, if it was one of my buddies that he killed, I'd probably kill him myself & take the court marshall.

LIke I said earlier, this scumbag owes his life to the media. If they weren't there he would probably be dead by now and there would be no Court Martial. No matter how many people were around I can guarantee there wouldn't have been any witnesses.

 

[PRINCESS Ariel34]

Originally posted by Jeff in BigD
If it were my child, I'd feel no different than I would if Ted Bundy were my son. Complete shame. I'd have no problem with justice being carried out.

It's easy for a person to feel like this when they haven't experienced it yet.

 

[wvjules]

I think he should be dealt with swiftly and harshly. Isn't what he did treason/traitor punishable by death? If so, I have no problem with that punishment being carried out. I don't want the other soldiers in his outfit to take it upon themselves to punish him though. I understand the urge to do so, but leave it up the the system to deal with him.

I worry about the consequences of this man's actions though. Will all Muslim-American soldiers be treated differently b/c of this man's actions? I think that might be the greater tragedy. (I'm not minimizing the tragedy of the others' death and injury.)

BTW, Princess Ariel, you're signature picture is way too big.

 

[sgtdisney]

If there is conclusive proof that this soldier did this, he committed an act of treason at a time of war and he should be executed immediately.

 

[wvjules]

Oh, and another thing. Why is everyone assuming that his parents/family might be ashamed of him? Maybe they supported his actions. We won't know this until the full story comes out.

 

[DonnaS]

Originally posted by wvjules
Oh, and another thing. Why is everyone assuming that his parents/family might be ashamed of him? Maybe they supported his actions. We won't know this until the full story comes out.

I think it's a case of giving them the benefit of the doubt.

BTW I agree 100% with your previous post.

 

[Serena]

You're right, most of us do not know what they are going through. But trust is trust. Those soldiers expect violence from the enemy. This man was one of their own. One that they relied on to support and protect them. Just like they would protect him.

He threw three grenades into three tents. Three of his fellow soldiers tents, while they were sleeping. A dozen people were hurt, one killed.
Not only is he a murderer, but a cowardly one as well.

I find it very easy to understand the bloodthirst.

 

[RoutemanDan]

Here is the latest story on this....



The suspect, a sergeant from an engineering unit, was detained shortly after the early morning attack at a tented command center in Kuwait.


"He's a Muslim, and it seems he was just against the war," said one U.S. military source, who did not wish to be identified.


Brigade commander Col. Ben Hodges, who suffered a slight flesh wound in the attack, said a grenade was rolled into each of three tents at the command area at Camp Pennsylvania, the Kuwait base for the 1st Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division.


Another U.S. military source said the assault appeared to be well-planned with the suspect first knocking out a generator that supplied electricity to the tents, and then lobbing in grenades.


He also allegedly opened fire with his rifle before he was tackled and detained. The soldier had apparently been attached to the division for a few months.


"It is just unbelievable. It's terroristic, it truly is," said Capt. James McGahey. "Everybody is a bit jumpy, edgy. You never want, especially at a time like this, to have to have to think whether you can trust the guy to your left or your right."


Time magazine correspondent Jim Lacey, who witnessed the attack, described scenes of what he called chaos and carnage when the grenades exploded, saying soldiers thought they had come under Iraqi missile attack.


GAS MASKS


Television footage showed soldiers running around wearing gas masks.


"A suspect was taken into custody following the attack on elements of the 101st Airborne Division. The suspect is a soldier assigned to the division," U.S. Central Command, which is running the war in Iraq, said in a statement.


The attack stunned members of the 101st Airborne Division, which specializes in rapid air assault advances, just as it was preparing to move into Iraq to join the invasion which began on Thursday.


Lacey described the man as disgruntled and said he had been "acting strange," but the military sources said the attack appeared to be "politically motivated" rather than personal.


U.S. Central Command did not name the suspect or comment on a possible motive.


A photograph shown on CNN portrayed the suspect bare-headed and kneeling outside a tent in his desert fatigues with his hands cuffed behind his back. A flak-jacketed soldier stood over him with a weapon.


Maj. Hugh Cate, a spokesman for the 101st Airborne, said 16 people were hit by the attack. One died before arriving at hospital, three others underwent surgery and the other 12 were only slightly wounded.


Camp Pennsylvania is one of the desert bases from where U.S. forces have launched an invasion to try to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).





Thousands of U.S. troops have been based in Kuwait since the end of the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). They have been targeted several times in recent months by militants whom Kuwaiti authorities say may have links to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda network.

Kuwait is a key U.S. ally and its government is publicly grateful to Washington for leading the 1991 war that drove out occupying Iraqi troops from the oil-rich country, but there have been concerns of rising anti-American sentiment.


---------------

It appears to have been "well thought out".