Is it possible there are 18,000 court marshals a year?

[napi21]

I realize there are a lot of people in the DOD, but that sounds like an extremely large number to me!

That's one of the excuses Rummy used today for why he didn't respond to the torture problem sooner.

[KG]

1. those would be 'courts martial'

[Jacobin]

2. He couldn't connect the dots:

No one put the pictures under his nose and screamed in his ear: "Hey motherfucker!!! Your troops are torturing Iraqis and there are pictures on the internet and the world will see them and they will rag your sorry ass."

:-)

Heck, it worked for Smirky.

[thebaghwan]

6. Right ON! Just like nobody screamed at Rice or Bush. Hey they might use

airplanes as bombs!

[diamond14]

3. that was STUPID....rummy claimed that OUR military is just a bunch

of criminals anyways...18,000 criminals every year...so what is he supposed to do about it?????

over and over, rummy made the claim that with 18,000 criminals already on the loose EVERY YEAR in OUR military....with such corruption, it is simply impossible for him to pay attention to a few more USA rapists and POW torturers.....how could anyone expect poor old rummy to even notice that????

[napi21]

4. I don't think that's what he meant. He was saying too many for

HIM to pay attention to each one.

I never thouught about it the way you did. I guess you could interpret it that way too. Kind of makes you ask, if he's telling the truth, what kind of a leader is he that hes operation is that bad?

[haele]

5. Courts Martials aren't always for crimes -

They're also for accidents and other investigative incidents in which often there is no clear blame. 18000 a year DOD wide - especially with over a million and a half service members - during this current administration where there are active "conflicts" going on is not surprisingly large.
I've been a witness in two series of Courts Martials during my career - once for a mass sweep accusation in which there were actually 19 Courts Martials (prior to the time when there actually had to be evidence to be accused of homosexuality and an legal officer decided he didn't want women "in his Navy"), and once for a misfire incident on a test range where there was some damage. Both ended up with no convictions.

Haele

[starroute]

7. Very trivial offenses can result in a court martial

When my husband was in the Army, he once punched another soldier (who probably deserved it), wound up in a court martial, and had to pay a small fine.

I would expect that most of those 18,000 are about on that level.

[napi21]

8. If that's the case, why is it made to sound like this is horrible

punishment? Ever since this picture thing surfaced, everyone has been talking about reprimands and courts marshals. I know I'm not the only one who thought the later was pretty bad!