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Interestingly enough, even though the term "sniper" immediately invokes certain assumptions as to how the killing went down, he killed the Iraqi at very close range with his pistol, after he (Iraqi) stumbled on the snipers hiding place.
Upon shooting him and seeing the Iraqi convulsing, he fired another shot to "deliver the grace", but missed.
IMO, this is a horrendous prosecution.
When you unleash fighting men to fight, there are indeed protocols.
A sniper, whose very life relies on his concealment and artifice, is a walking dead man the moment his presence is betrayed.
Convicting a sniper who was on an active mission for killing someone who compromised his position is a miscarriage of justice to a very high degree. It's an example of us forgetting that there is no such thing as a "clean war".
I hope this soldier receives a full pardon from an outgoing Bush. His council seemed ungodly ineffective (basing their entire case on some "sleep deprivation" play) instead of simply pointing out that such a killing is entirely within the nature of a snipers expected duties and that the prosecution was purely political.
Of course you are right, however if you were the family of the innocent Iraqi man who accidently stumbled upon their position and was assassinated, the explanation of "Oh well, there is no such thing as a clean war, too bad so sad" might not cut it for you.
Terrible that our troops even get put in that position in the first place. That is the real miscarriage of justice. Damned if they do, damned if they don't.
Pretty much no doubt that the family is glad to see this happen, however, the concept of justice isn't liable to the emotions of families. It is and should always be sterile.
Take a look at any one of the cases where two knuckleheads get into a bar fight and as a result of a particularly good right cross, one of them winds up with a broken neck and dies. The family of the deceased always crows for murder charges, but thankfully, the justice system in most states has a 'sht happens' sort of rule and doesn't persecute the fisticuffer unduly.
We all agree that it's unfortunate we are in Iraq to begin with, but if we are going to send snipers in there under the color of authority, then we must allow them to be a sniper without prosecuting him to satiate the emotions of a few people who operate on philosophy alone.
In the real world, he was there and he acted appropriately.
There are more non-lethal ways to dealing with iraqi citizens... killing them is not of those options... I don't feel sorry for murder, regardless of what the reason. If someone found out their spot... then go find a new one.... no reason to kill someone over it.
There are more non-lethal ways to dealing with iraqi citizens... killing them is not of those options... I don't feel sorry for murder, regardless of what the reason. If someone found out their spot... then go find a new one.... no reason to kill someone over it.
Wow.
I guess you don't understand how these things work, do you.
If their hiding spot is found, it isn't like they can simply say "OllieOllieOxenFree, we're leaving now and going someplace else!" It would most likely result in the entire team being killed when every man, woman and child in the neighborhood sprays their position with AK fire.
Sorry, no. In a situation like this, there are no "non lethal" ways to deal with this.
Snipers don't have procedural resources to deal with "stumble upons". It's the nature of their job. They can't simply cuff 'em and send them "behind the lines. "
We either do away with all snipers in the armed forces, or we accept that the preservation of their secrecy is an essential role of their job.
It appears the guy was right there, all you have to do is take him down and re-evaluate the situation... my first response would not be shoot first, ask questions later...
Sgt. Michael A. Hensley, who was a staff sergeant at the time of the killing but was later demoted, testified that he and the other members of the sniper team had all fallen asleep, then awoke to find al-Janabi squatting about three feet from them.
Hensley said he ordered the man to lie on the ground and was searching him when he saw "military-aged men" who he thought were carrying weapons about 100 yards away. He said al-Janabi began yelling, and he decided that killing the man was the only way to keep the sniper hide-out from being discovered by what he believed was a group of approaching insurgents.
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