If you haven't heard the story of Jose Luis Nazario, read it here.
For those of you who don't want to follow the link, Nazario is a former Marine who allegedly killed two insurgents in Fallujah. The incident occurred during wartime, like I said, in Fallujah, a hotbed for the insurgents at the time of the alleged killing. Nazario is now back in the United States, he has received several awards from the military, and was commended for his actions in the war.
Now that he's gotten back to the States, however, Nazario has been charged with voluntary manslaughter in federal court. Not a court martial, federal court. Now, Sergeant Nazario was following orders from his C.O., so why should he be held accountable by a civilian court for what he's done under direct orders from a military officer? The statute that he's being charged under is the "Military Extraterritorial Extradition Act", which was almost certainly not passed to be used in this case. It gives the government a chance to prosecute civilians and military personnel for crimes committed overseas.
If Nazario is found guilty in this case, this is only going to open the floodgates to the prosecution of a large number of former soldiers who just so happened to kill someone in their tour of duty. The problem is that most of these former soldiers were not court martialed. They were not charged by the military in any way.
We already have a hard time recruiting people for the military as it is, with the long, drawn out war in Iraq discouraging people, but if you add in the fact that you can get prosecuted when you come back to the country for FOLLOWING ORDERS, you aren't going to get anyone to come out and join the military, or you're going to have a lot more deaths because people won't be protecting themselves.
One of the biggest movements in this country, whether you're a war supporter or not, was the "Support the Troops" movement. This prosecution of Nazario seems to go against that. Like the war or not, we want the soldiers to do their jobs over in Iraq. If we can't let them do their jobs properly, there are going to be gigantic issues.
Leave the military offenses to the military's courts. There's no need for these government prosecutors to dabble in these cases.
Cheney Larschied
Daniella Sarahyba
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That is INSANE.
Nazario shouldn't be prosicuted!.
Dyhard
Germantown, WI
Total Comments (77648)
As a former Navy Airman who served during the Iran v.s.Iraq"conflict" I'm appalled that the government will try to prosecute "Military" veterans in civilian courts. What a shame, the people should vote out this wussy type of politicians that allowed this to happen!
ALL ABOUT LIFE &…
Denver , CO
Total Comments (659)
Whoops. This will be fixed.
thehemogoblin
The University Of, OR
Total Comments (29343)
Thanks for this thought-provoking piece, SS. The thing that most boggles my mind is that Nazario faces civilian court prosecution while every one of the Abu Ghraib soldiers who overstepped their boundaries -- and the commanders, from Bush and Rumsfeld on down, who implicitly condoned their actions -- continue to be exonerated for such deplorable behavior...
Bigalke
Springfield, OR
Total Comments (22305)
Yeah, I agree. This is ridiculous. I didn't know about it until just know though. Thanks for making me aware, SS.
G.O.A.T. is back?
Scranton, PA
Total Comments (12359)
Wow....so now you can be charged with doing your duty during wartime basically. I thought the whole point of a a war was to kill your enemies? Guess the next war our troops won't be able to kill their enemies, so if there is no killing then it's not war, that's called peace.
I guess if you can't get peace through diplomacy, you get it by charging your military members with a crime each time they kill their enemies so they'll stop killing their enemies. Isn't that the whole point of prosecution? To make an example of one person so no one else does it?
gotta love our country!
rstowe
Newport News , VA
Total Comments (47606)
gotta love our country!
rstowe - The NMI Emperor | 08/21/08, 06:52 AM
Woo!!! U-S-A!! U-S-A!!!
SS-Our Universe...
The Best City In, MN
Total Comments (8868)
Yup - this is NUTS (pardon the squirrel pun)
Holding accountable for crimes overseas is a decent idea is a decent idea for everyone if it is a crime in both countries, and there may be merits to giving the soldier the option of a military or civilian trial for mundane crimes like theft, but it ws never intended to be implemented this way, nor should it be.
If there was ever a case to extend a pardon before the trial, this is it.
Prove It
Frellin Cold In, AK
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