Suspect soldiers: Did crimes in U.S. foretell violence in Iraq?

[Barrett808]

Source: Sacramento Bee

Suspect soldiers: Did crimes in U.S. foretell violence in Iraq?
By Russell Carollo | Sacramento Bee

Before Army Sgt. 1st Class Randal Ruby was accused in Iraq of beating prisoners and of conspiring to plant rifles on dead civilians, he amassed a 10-year criminal record in Colordao and Washington state for assaulting his wife and in Maine for a drunken high-speed police chase, for which he remains wanted.

Before Lance Cpl. Delano Holmes stabbed an Iraqi private to death, angering the soldier’s unit of coalition soldiers, he was hospitalized after threatening suicide in high school, accused of assault, disorderly conduct and trespassing, and, in the months leading up to deployment, twice linked to drug use.

...

A yearlong examination of military and civilian records by The Sacramento Bee involving hundreds of troops who entered the services since the Iraq war began identified 120 cases of people whose backgrounds should have raised the suspicions of military recruiters, including felony convitions and serious drug, alcohol or mental health problems.

Of those, 70 later were involved in controversial or criminal incidents in Iraq.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/iraq/story/43999.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. It's bound to happen when you allow the military to induct the Group W Bench.

[mopinko]

10. i remember hearing jack murtha complaining about this.

iirc, this was what really turned him against the war. the generals were coming to him, begging not to have to take these people.
guess they couldn't find enough litterbugs.

[World Citizen]

2. raised suspicions?

What it did was raise their expectations. What do you think the duped masses are for if not mindless violence?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

3. MacNamara's Morons all over again

Also known as Project 100,000 - round up 100,000 criminals, mental patients and vagrants and send them to Vietnam and they will come back as forthright men.

[Catch22Dem]

4. I don't get it. When I was in the service, we couldn't get away with SHIT

I can't imagine having an outstanding warrant and being allowed to deploy. "My day" isn't THAT long ago.

[Doctor_J]

12. That's because you weren't a photo-op in a made-for TV war

* has turned the US military into an election prop - just something to keep the invasion going.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[lyonn]

6. More bush logic

First, the Iraqis are grateful for the invasion and now their "freedom". Second, our troops are fodder to be used and abused. This type list of the bush logic is too long to list.

Obama better get elected and then he needs to tell Iraq they truly own their own country and that we are leaving. This one act/declaration should improve the conditions and status of the U.S and Iraq......

Then we need to be sure that bush's secret service protective force are from very select agents that have passed the same test as those described in the article. Skip over the convictions and go straight for a warm body that can tote a gun. Give him (george) the same respect he gave to the Iraqis and fellow troops.

[gratuitous]

8. Well, Bush IS an MBA

And one of the first things anyone in a business class learns is "past performance is not an indicator of future earnings." It's on all those investment prospectuses. Why shouldn't the same thing apply to human beings, just in reverse? Sure, this guy is a bully and thug in regular society. No reason to think he won't do just fine in the military when we hand him a gun, a lot of body armor, and turn him loose to occupy another country?

Gee whiz, nobody could have foreseen . . . blah, blah, blah.

[benddem]

7. DUH n/t

[crim son]

9. Calculated risk.

A tendency to violent crime may be a very good thing in a dirty war like ours in Iraq. The problems arise when the criminals get caught doing their "duty."

[semillama]

11. So what happens when these guys get out of the service?

Granted, I would like to believe that the service in the Armed Forces would help turn around some of these guys. The Army was the best thing to ever happen to my best friend (he wasn't on the path to criminality but he was drifting), he's now a captain, happily married and with two great kids.

But realistically, at least some of them are not going to be positively affected by their experiences, especially since they've been serving in an immoral war. So when the unreformed felons get out of the service, they'll have had extensive weapon and combat training, not to mention a very good chance of having obtained a nice case of PTSD. Whose brilliant idea was this, again?

[Hydra]

14. It won't turn them around

The people affected most by PSTD are the people who are the best socially adjusted and possessing human qualities. The ones who do best during wars and come back mentally and emotionally well are the scaries of our society...and as you say, they have been given a free education on how to be better social menaces.

The greatest lie ever told is that war is somehow a noble occupation- the reality is a group of people destroying the lives of other people. One of these days we might grow up and stop doing these things...but I doubt it.

[dysfunctional press]

13. yes, definitely. but the "crime" was the theft of the 2000 election.

nt.

[Barrett808]

15. Other stories in this series:

'Standup soldier' who killed Iraqi journalist had troubled past
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x371205

Pre-service crimes often go uncited when vets claim PTSD
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x371204

The Sacramento Bee is doing some good work on this story.