25 January 2006

Daily Kos Diary Retreads: Military Justice

Before I established this website, I did almost all of my non-Colorado politics blogging, and a lot of my Colorado blogging as well, at Daily Kos in my diary. It is still there (I have put a link in the sidebar) and has entries going back to the 2004 Presidential Primary season. I was looking through them today, and am still pleased with what many of them had to say. I also found it interesting, as I sorted through them, to compare the timeless ones (many on policy issues) from the dated ones (most on breaking political developments).

After reading them, I decided to add a new category of posts to this blog, Daily Kos Diary Retreads, that call attention to some of my better or more important post there, or pull together themes that have been developing for some time. I'm going to start with the theme of military (in)justice. This theme has carried over into this blog most recently with my post:

Murder By Torture, No Big Deal which notes a sentence of $6,000 fine, reprimand and two months of the military equivalent of house arrest.

At Daily Kos, I noted the case of Colonel Pappas, who authorized the torture methods used at Abu Grahib prison in Iraq, who was given a reprimand and fined $8,000. A soldier who drowned an Iraqi civilian who had told the soldier that he couldn't swim, was sentenced to 45 days in jail and a $12,000 fine. Another man who was responsible for Abu Grahib prison torture policies was put forward for a promotion. And, "Two-thirds of U.S. soldiers charged with serious crimes like rape of fellow service members or unjustified killings of prisoners are allowed to give up their uniforms, rather than face criminal punishments."

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