8 Responses to “The (Colorado Springs) Gazette reveals alleged war crimes”

1. Fr. Van Windsor Says:
   August 11th, 2009 at 1:00 pm

   As a former Mississippi Prison Chaplain, I’m not surprised…I used to be surprised, but I found a number of ex-military folks were in prison. Long before this war. Sad, indeed, and frightening.

2. Caleb Powers Says:
   August 12th, 2009 at 5:06 pm

   Is it just me, or is this not one of the most important stories of the war?

   I wonder why it hasn’t been picked up by more media.

   One of the things this story mentions is that one of the units involved, the 506th Infantry Regiment was the unit featured in the book and miniseries “Band of Brothers,” about their service in World War II. I became fascinated with that story, and read not only the book itself, but many of the slew of memoirs of soldiers in the unit that were published after the miniseries became such a big hit. The memoir by the hero of the story, Maj. Richard Winters, discusses the fact that some of his soldiers appeared to be “killers,” as he called them, people who seemed to enjoy killing. And he readily admitted that he put them in the front lines, just as the officers in this story put these killers on the front lines. That is one of the dirty secrets of war: There are people who, when given the opportunity, will kill almost indiscriminately. And our military knows it, and takes advantage of their predilection.

   The story here is very disturbing, and the most disturbing part is that the sergeants and officers apparently discouraged people truly suffering from PTSD from getting any help for it, even though Army policy is to give them psychological evaluations and treatment. This is scary stuff, and it’s going to get worse the longer the war drags on.

3. Niall Says:
   August 12th, 2009 at 6:29 pm

   Caleb -

   You should go see the movie “The Hurt Locker” that’s in theaters now. It’s the best movie about the experience of US troops in Iraq I’ve ever seen. It’s phenomenal.

4. Caleb Powers Says:
   August 13th, 2009 at 10:37 am

   I’ve heard that, Niall. However, a part of my own Austerity Plan is to wait for movies to come out on DVD and rent them for a dollar, so I’ll see it, but not just now.

5. Mike in Colorado Says:
   August 13th, 2009 at 2:35 pm

   I wrote a letter to the editor in response to this reporting, as did others, stating that this is the best reporting we have seen in years in the Gazette. It’s a local story with national impact, and we are in one of the ground zero communities. Our church is involved in a community faith council that exists to plan and run day-long seminars awareness for faith leaders in the Colorado Sprngs area for the sole purpose of building awareness about PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury) among our soldiers and marines. About 75 faith leaders attended the first seminar and 50 the second, including pastors, priests, rabbis, etc. Please pray for these soldiers and their families and commnities.

   Peace and grace,
   Mike

6. Mike in Colorado Says:
   August 13th, 2009 at 2:37 pm

   “Our church is involved in a community faith council that exists to plan and run day-long seminars for faith leaders in the Colorado Sprngs area for the sole purpose of building awareness about PTSD and TBI (traumatic brain injury) among our soldiers and marines. “

7. Caleb Powers Says:
   August 13th, 2009 at 2:49 pm

   I don’t know the quality of reporting in the past, Mike, but this is a powerful and very well reported article. This is the kind of thing that newspapers ought to be reporting every day.

8. perplexed Says:
   August 17th, 2009 at 1:39 pm

   The war never ends, it just changes its location.

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