An Army Staff Sergeant is being tried for desertion in a courts-martial in Georgia. He came home from Iraq on a two-week leave, and decided not to go back, but instead seek C.O. status. I have gone on record as saying UA is a bad idea, and the SSGT did not go about making his case the right way and is now paying for it by being courts-martialed. But it makes you wonder, again, how the 1600 Crew has the moral authority to drag any serviceman or woman in front of a court given Fearless Leader's service record.
Maybe SSGT Mejia should have been born into a rich family and gotten his teeth cleaned in that four-month interregnum, then at least he'd be eligible to run for high office and have the adulation of the deluded.
posted by Jo Fish on 05.17.04 at 11:44 PM
Comments:
Also, Jo - if he was born into a rich family, they would have enough cash to buy his way out.
Otherwise, the BFEE doesn't even want to hear from you...
posted by: Spasm on 05.18.04 at 01:42 PM [permalink]
This raises an interesting question. It was clearly established at the Nuremberg tribunal that it is no defence to a charge of war crimes for the defendant to claim he (or she) was obeying an order. It therefore follows that in order to avoid being put into that situation it may be necessary for serviceman to refuse to carry out such an order from time to time. This is a very difficult concept to translate into practical steps at the grass roots level. What is the mechanism for refusing? And by what standards and by whom is the refusee then judged? It can not be satisfactory that soldiers faced with that type of moral and legal dilemma may feel obliged to absent themselves from duty, particularly if they are engaged on combat operations at the time. The result is inevitably going to be very messy.
Think buscho was waiting to do anything because he feared a backlash from latinos for an objector.
Seems the guy really takes the lady of sorrow's vows to heart.
He's making an issue of it now, it's outta Shrub's hands. Watch him make it a pardon for a save-face in FLA if it's the soldier whose case i was familiar with.
posted by: Mr.Murder on 05.25.04 at 02:51 AM [permalink]
