Should a surrendering soldier be court-martialed?

Bill P

The recruiters offices will be open on Monday morning early. I expect you there since you are so dedicated. If you asked me that question eyeball to eyeball, you would no longer have eyeballs.

Ray Eston Smith Jr

Apparently you've never served in the military. American soldiers are trained in proper conduct as prisoners-of-war. Many brave soldiers have surrendered. You have no right to impugn their honor.

briang731/ bvincent

You sure don't have a very good perspective of what happens when troops are forced to surrender. There are a few who would fight until their ammo was gone, pull out their k-bar, and start killing ragheads in that fashion. It sounds pretty gung-ho I will admit, and calmer minds would say, 'never take a knife to a gun fight', because if he's not killed he will be forced to surrender, anyway !

Then there is the trooper who is wounded and knows, if he surrenders , he will get medical treatment either for himself or a buddy who might be wounded !

Then, there's the scenario of being caught in a trap and you're seriously outnumbered. Some guys lose their nerve at this point, and just give up. Know one knows how they will respond under those conditions, so it's not reasonable for us to pass judgment, when we don't know what our response would be if put into a situation just described

kveryeffective

You right this isn't WW2.
The Muslim terrorists don't even follow the Genva convention.
Our troops are made of find moral fiber than you will ever have.

Each one of those guys knows they are in for a very rough time so they are not going to go quitely in that night.

Maybe you should go to Iraq and teach those guys how to do things if now SHUT UP.

acct10132002

All soldiers during WW !! were not necessirarily put through the entire lengthy training process.

Always fighting to the death is NOT a requirement and wouldn't be required. If you've 5 guns in your face it would be fool-hardy to try to fight them off with a knife, for instance.
captured you give Name rank and lately your social security number! I'd like to strangle the bloke who changed that. There was NOTHING wrong with having a "serial number" and not being a "cereal". And it didn't mean you would later become a "serial killer"...just some ignoranus changed it...and needs a good forty second throttling until his face turns blue! Not a beating...mind you, just a GOOD STRANGLING and perhaps a soccer goal force punt to the rear!

sea link2

in the 21st century, how can we be still asking that question, welcome to the planet of the apes!

crushinator01

So you can't see any situation where an American solider could be out gunned? This is a case by case thing.

ohiofirefighter42

No....a soldier has an obligation to put his life on the line for the country....but once confronted with overwhelming force he has no obligation to actually die for his country. If you are concerned they may be too cowardly, Id suggest you join and volunteer for deployment.

gromit801

Tell you what, you join the Army, and get your ignorant, cowardly butt over to Iraq.

Let us know how it works out for you.

Anne

The Right Is Wrong.

Kind of pathetic coming from someone who has never served. You are all talk. Now go grab another bag of Doritos and a mountain dew and get back to talking crap.

It's always the cowards who don't put their money where their mouth is that end up criticizing others for doing something the coward is too scared to accomplish.

scorp

Oh, that's great - it's 'against your belief to join the US military', yet you have the GALL to say that anybody that won't fight to the death against overwhelming odds is a coward. Who's the real coward, Jack?

The fact is, the Code of Conduct says that a US soldier will not surrender while he still has the means to resist. If you had ever BEEN in the military, and received training in this, you would understand that a single man surrounded by a platoon of the enemy who are armed to the teeth does NOT have the means to resist. You gotta be realistic.

The fact is, even in the current conflict, that POWs that have been rescued have often been DECORATED, not one has been courtmartialed.

Bottom line - you're not only a coward, you're an idiot.

redgriffin728

All American Fighting Men and Women are required to learn the Code of Conduct ,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_United_States_Military_Code_of_Conduct , this regulates your conduct if you are captured. If your fellow captive accuse you of aiding the enemy then you are charged under Article 99 of the UCMJ and tried at a Courts Marital .

Now are you saying that those soldiers that have been abducted are cowards and that they surrendered? If so why are they all dead? It doesn't seem like a way to engender the willingness to cooperate. And no cooperation under duress, torture the like, is not considered a violation of Article 5 of the Code of Conduct.

I think that you should rethink your question because I don't know what happened to cause these young men to surrender. Do You...?

chappye7

Thats very extreme, you might want to find out the info first.

vcxzzxcvvcxzzxcv

Ummm...

Any soldier that surrenders to a Muslim has a better chance of surviving if he turns his M-16 on himself and fires a 3 round burst into his head. Forget the court martial. He won't live to see it.

le VicSter

If a soldier were to become a POW, then he/she should follow the articles in the Code of Conduct.

If a soldier surrenders, then yes-he/she should be court martialed. Surrendering to the enemy proves you are weak and a coward - in this time our military has no place for cowards.

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