Have you seen troops acting bad in war? Would you speak if you have?

Question

I am curious since you can't do alot of screening on new troops and always wonder some wacko with a gun shooting anyone.

Answer 1

Define 'bad.'

I have disciplined soldiers for lack of discipline. In fact - if you enforce discipline fairly and consistently, you only have to deal with minor matters.

I have had a soldier who - when we deployed - we decided to leave behind. He would up getting chaptered out.

Answer 2

Can't do screening on new troops? Wrong.

At the MEPS level, recruits are checked extensively for disqualifying tattoos and fingerprints are run. Anyone who passes this is then subject to extensive profiling by Drill Sergeants and Drill Instructors, who do an outstanding job weeding out the vast majority of the psychologically unfit.

Before every deployment, a battery of tests, exams, and other hurdles are passed to ensure that troops are conditioned to follow the Laws of Land Warfare and not screw off. This means absolutely no alcohol, severe restrictions on sexual fraternization between the troops (and virtually NONE with local nationals for the vast majority of troops).

If someone goes really outrageously over the edge, if it involves local nationals, you bet it would hit the news. If it involves Coalition troops, same deal. You can't engage in an atrocity of that scale without it coming out (i.e. Abu Ghraib, Mahmoudiyah). In this day and age, it doesn't happen.

Afghanistan and Iraq are not Korea or Vietnam. The level of media saturation on the battlefield is far beyond what was there previously. It is definitely not easy to be a discipliine problem or to go "old school" and trapeze across the Middle East and Central Asia like a posse of bank robbers. That just doesn't happen, unless you either want NCIS/CID coming down with a boot on your neck, or you want to end up in Leavenworth.

If I saw members of my own platoon act "badly" in wartime, it would certainly depend on the degree of the offense. Filching loose paper from a school so you can write letters home because resupply is nonexistent in Spring 2003 and you can only use cardboard from MREs for just so many postcards before they run out (ESPECIALLY when you're down to one meal a day anyways)? I wouldn't call that worthy of speaking out on.

Like many of my friends at my workplace however, I have zero tolerance for banditry, rape, and abuse of power. None of us engaged in that sort of behavior, and it is entirely possible to stay focused and respond with sufficient violence of action to deal with local nationals without resorting to criminal acts like the overglorified insurgency movement.

Sidenote: And for those of you who believe they are entirely a heroic resistance movement, try explaining how kidnapping for ransom, vendetta murders, beheading, public mutilation, and indiscriminate use of carbombs in crowded streets is "heroism". Some of these tribal militias, I have no problem with. They've always been fighting. The out-and-out criminals and terror movements are scum. And those of you who support that scum are even less worthy of respect.

So the answer, Questioner, is in two parts: There are always problems with any military force. They are dealt with harshly when found out in the American military, even to the point of excess. If we find violations of the Laws of Land Warfare or other evidence of crimes, we act on our duties and they get reported. No matter what you do, if it's wrong it will see the light of day in some way, shape, or form.

Maybe you should get out there to the Middle East or Central Asia yourself and find all this out for yourself as a journalist, perhaps. Give it a shot.

Answer 3

No I haven't and I doubt that I would report follow Americans acting up

Answer 4

even though im not in the Army..yes if i saw someone acting badly,of course i would speak up.

Answer 5

lol i think the military wouldnt mind crazys joining up, i mean you kill in the military sooo...you get the idea.

also they have skinheads, gangmembers, pedis, crazys, racist in the military.

do a search on google

Answer 6

They need a therapist.