Quote:
Originally posted by DeltAlum
No question that US medics have enough morophine to put somebody out of his misery for good. Seems like the SOP in battle injuries (although I never have been a medic) is a shot of morophine and a shot of anti-biotics -- hopefully after first stopping the bleeding. There was almost certainly a greatly inhanced first aid kit somewhere closeby.
But then it comes down to playing God.
Now, if this soldier's intent was to end the victim's suffering, murder is probably too strong of a charge.
My worry is that, as is the case in police high speed chases, adrenaline starts pumping and even highly discliplined men get into a "bloodlust" kind of condition. Consider how many times we've seen police beating handcuffed prisoners. Then, consider how other officers inherently back up their own. I hope that what happened here wasn't anything like that, but hopefully the courtmartial woud bring than kind of thing out into the open.
If the defendant's motivations were as he says (again, I'm not saying they aren't), then I agree that a lesser charge may be in order.
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I can understand (and have seen) troops letting emotion and adrenaline get the better of them...
In this case I'm given the soldier the benifit of the doubt.. mainly for the context of the situation. The way I see it if the vicitim's wound was visible to an UAV (even with great optics) then it obviously was grevious...
That being said from the wording of the article it appears as if there wasn't much time given to considering the situation, and he shot the victim. I'd be more comfortable if the Capt. had appeared to take time to consider or had engaged in a discussion with at least the Lt. about this... instead of making a snap decision in this case.
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