February 24, 2005
The Saga of Lt. Ilario Pantano
An American Soldier who has be charged with premeditated murder for an incident that happened more than a year ago. An incident in which he was cleared for by his battlefield commanders. Is this Justice? Or is the government using him to try and placate critics of the war?
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This sounds like a Catch-22: he wasn't exactly in the right, but he wasn't exactly in the wrong, either. Soldiers are not policemen in any sense of the word, yet we insist that they be held to the same standards.
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Or is the government using him to try and placate critics of the war? Why would they start now?
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Or is the government using him to try and placate critics of the war? Uh, why would prosecuting one soldier placate critics of the war? War critic: "This war sucks." Government: "Well, we're prosecuting one soldier for murder." War critic: "It's all ok now." Not too likely, huh? anyway, if critic-placating was on the gov't mind, why didn't they prosecute this guy?
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Why wait a year to suddenly charge someone that was cleared previously? Truthfully I am having trouble seeing a reason for this. While I have no love for the current adminstration, I am also not ready to immediately blame them. I was not actually saying the reason was to placate war critics. I was just flinging some poop out there to see if it sticks. The question is have is why him and why now?
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If this story is even close to true then the charge wouldn't be pre-meditated murder. Unfortunately, the only versions of the story come from his mother and his lawyer. Let the trial take its course...the truth will come out there. Then we can decide whether we call this justice or not.
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One small step in the right direction does not convince me that anyone in the U.S. government or military is prepared to admit that any mistakes have been made in Iraq, or that the deaths of any Iraqis at the hands of U.S. terrorists are in any way murder. Get Bush and his regime heads charged and i'll say that progress is being made in my former home. Until that time, charging more and more soldiers is right, but does nothing to correct the inhumane and senseless invasion, torture, rape and murder that were the invasion's inevitable consequences.
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is the government using him to try and placate critics of the war? From what little I know about the internals of the US military, once you get this far into it the Executive Branch has relatively little direct influence. Assuming this guy is being screwed, there are probably internal military influences operating on the case that have little or no connection to the Administration.