US Soldiers 'Killed for Sport and Collected Fingers as Trophies'

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"Soldiers face trial over secret 'kill team' which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war."

Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon, Jeremy Morlock and Adam Winfield are four of the five Stryker soldiers who face murder charges, 09/08/10. (photo: Public Domain)

Comments

+5 # Guest 2010-09-09 08:23

The only surprise here is that the story has broken so soon. This kind of atrocity is inevitable. You can be sure the tribal network has spread this and others like it making it near impossible to achieve any of our stated or unstated goals. All the good intentions in the world are overshadowed by such acts of barbarity. How is it different that dropping bombs by computer game like consoles. Collateral damage, indeed.

How will the US media handle this? Ignore it? Minimize it? Turn these soldiers into victims? Deny it?

What will be the reaction of the commanders? Will they talk about a few rotten apples and pay off the families? Will they root out similar gangs among the forces?

+4 # Guest 2010-09-09 08:43

Of course, My Lai comparisons will be made. However, the situations were very different. Grunts spending a long time slogging in the field became fearful of every civilian no matter how old, young, sick or disabled. Paranoia ate up their judgment and humanity. They could not tell the difference between friend and foe.

My Lai was not for fun. However, I did witness barbaric acts done for fun and heard of many like this from the grunts who had taken part of seen them. I saw gunners on tanks shooting farm animals for fun leaving families without means to farm or eat. I also spent one Christmas day hiding under a villager's bed avoiding drunk soldiers shooting up the market for fun. I can still hear the version of Jingle Bells they were singing while doing it ending in "Take your Merry Christmas and shove it up your a$$." Not the level of men in this story but says a lot about why folks do not like occupiers and will do anything to get rid of them.

+5 # Guest 2010-09-09 08:52

This is supposed to be surprising? There aren't many rational people who don't know that war so frequently makes soldiers less than human, no matter what their nationality. It is true that so much depravity occurs during times of war, on the part of soldiers, quite apart from battling "the enemy," including rape and every other crime that ordinary civilians are sent to prison for every day, in America. No wonder so many soldiers keep signing up for yet another tour, to fuel another adrenalin rush.

+3 # Guest 2010-09-09 11:08

My personal guess is that "war" didn't make these men murderers. They were rotten before they joined up. Afghanistan simply gave them opportunity to act upon their evil immoral natures.

+4 # Guest 2010-09-10 08:36

I hold the same opinion of Bush and Cheney. Only it was 9/11 that gave them their opportunity.

0 # Guest 2010-09-10 13:59

Quoting

My personal guess is that "war" didn't make these men murderers. They were rotten before they joined up. Afghanistan simply gave them opportunity to act upon their evil immoral natures.

Assuming you are correct, the military is still responsible for the people they select. I was heavily examined in terms of psychological profile before serving in special forces. I can assure you, a capacity for brutality is not an excluding feature. Further, I have seen good men made into animals because this is what desperately fighting for your life in places where you don't belong on behalf of people that don't want you can do. There is no one that cannot be broken.

+5 # Guest 2010-09-09 09:17

Thank you for printing all their names and photos. Didn't MAJ Calley finally come out and apologize last year for the first time? He should have had the death penalty.

+5 # Guest 2010-09-09 14:06

The swine that run today's military are turning our kids into murdering thugs. There are no more "rules of warfare", or Geneva Convention because of the treacherous and traitorous military leaders we have today!!

+2 # Guest 2010-09-09 16:13

You send them for repeated tours of combat duty, and then you're shocked when they become murderers.

+2 # Guest 2010-09-10 16:09

That's the pentagon generals for you. Take a real innocent young kid, promise him an education, desensitize him to the point where he could kill his father and mother, and than give him a gun, ship him to another country where he meets people he was taught to hate and you got the sorriest pieces of human beings on the planet not fit to live with civilized people. And to think these mad dogs will seek jobs as policemen when they get back. Even brainwashed Nazis during Hitler regime couldn't complete with these sorry bastards when it comes to torture and murder innocent civilians.

I would hold the pentagon responsible on these matters.
America, are you listening?

0 # Guest 2010-09-13 07:35

Do you *really* believe those in the Pentagon care? It purposefully accomplishes what it wants. It manipulates humans into becoming automated killing machines.

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