Killings in Afghanistan-A look at military justice in Afghanistan case

bruno

bruno

15-Year Member
Retired Moderator
Joined
Feb 2, 2008
Messages
3,059
The horrifying events that occured in Afghanistan on Sunday where an Army SSG apparently deliberately murdered 16 villagers is clearly on everyone's mind. He is going to be tried under the UCMJ- which is sometimes not well understood. The Army Times posted an interesting summary of how the case will proceed at the link below.
I think that it is important to caution our members that this is not the time or place to wildly speculate about causes, defenses or comparisons to unrelated events. These are real world events which will affect American service members in a war zone as well as American interests- this would be a good time to be measured and thoughtful in how you present and comment on this tragic and horrible event. The previous thread on this subject was removed because it seemed apparent that it had become merely a mechanism for expounding a personal agenda. Please try and keep this thread in bounds and keep in mind that this forum is not the place to indulge in anti-American or anti-military personal biases.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-military-justice-in-afghanistan-killing-case-031312/

WASHINGTON — The military has already held a probable cause hearing for the soldier suspected in the weekend killings of 16 Afghan villagers, but the military has still not released his name or said when charges would be filed.

The military justice system, in many cases, holds to the same basic tenets as the civilian system.

In both civilian and military law, a suspect in a crime cannot be held for more than 48 hours without a court hearing.
“There is a system in place to make sure that people simply aren’t thrown into a dungeon somewhere,” said Eugene R. Fidell, a former Coast Guard judge advocate who teaches law at Yale....
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
As the world turns its attention on this one bad egg, let's remember that over 100,000 members of the ISAF mission place themselves in harm's way and continue to drive on with the mission in an effort to make our world better.
 
bruno said:
The horrifying events that occured in Afghanistan on Sunday where an Army SSG apparently deliberately murdered 16 villagers is clearly on everyone's mind. He is going to be tried under the UCMJ- which is sometimes not well understood. The Army Times posted an interesting summary of how the case will proceed at the link below.
I think that it is important to caution our members that this is not the time or place to wildly speculate about causes, defenses or comparisons to unrelated events. These are real world events which will affect American service members in a war zone as well as American interests- this would be a good time to be measured and thoughtful in how you present and comment on this tragic and horrible event. The previous thread on this subject was removed because it seemed apparent that it had become merely a mechanism for expounding a personal agenda. Please try and keep this thread in bounds and keep in mind that this forum is not the place to indulge in anti-American or anti-military personal biases.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-military-justice-in-afghanistan-killing-case-031312/
Click to expand...

Thanks to the moderators for providing quick and fair justice to the previous thread. The behaviors exhibited did not fit within the rules established for this site.

What I find interesting about the whole timeline laid out for the process is how long the whole thing can take.

And as much as getting to the truth is important, getting to what broke down that led to this incident is every bit as important to how our effort there can continue in an effective manner.

Let's hope we are learning a lot and improving things in theatre as we investigate.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top