LA Times; Four seconds in Afghanistan: Was it combat, or a crime?
Kim Murphy, in the Los Angeles Times tells the story of SFC Walter Taylor who, in the middle of a firefight saw a black car pull up in the middle of the engagement, a figure dressed in black emerge from the car which appeared to have wires hanging from it. SFC Taylor thought the figure was about add a massive explosion to the confusion that comes with war and shot the figure, who turned out to be a doctor, Aqilah Hikmat, a mother of four who was coming to the fight to render aid.
SFC Taylor is facing murder charges as a result;
Army prosecutors say Hikmat’s killing in July 2011 was not just a casualty of combat, but a crime. Charged with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty, Taylor will face a hearing June 19 before a U.S. military judge in Germany to determine whether the case goes to a full court-martial, with the possibility of three years in prison.
You can be reasonably sure that the Afghan government is behind this prosecution – the same government that is releasing dangerous prisoners back out into the wild to continue their murderous rampage against Afghan civilians who are doing nothing more than going to school or market. And, oh, by the way, the US government is doing the same thing, albeit more secretly than the Afghan government.
SFC Taylor thought he was saving the lives of his men who were engaged with an enemy, and although the death of Aqilah Hikmat is indeed a tragedy, if she had been displaying a red cross, red crescent or even a white flag, I’m sure SFC Taylor would have given the scene another moment’s thought before he squeezed the trigger of his M4 and ended her life.
SFC Taylor is facing charges for the accidental killing, and the Army needs to decide in the favor of the sergeant, but that won’t happen without a jury of his true peers – not a bunch of sergeant majors who never saw combat. Given the conditions as reported in the Times, I would drop charges against him immediately. Oh, by the way, SFC Taylor has since had his face ripped off by an IED while on patrol a few days after this incident. The last thing him and his family needs is to face these specious charges in a court martial show trial to mollify the Afghan government and bolster Karzai’s government in the eyes of his illiterate constituents.
And, oh, yeah, good on the Times and Ms. Murphy for bringing this story to light. And thanks to the large number of y’all who sent me this link.
Category: Terror War
PC should never trump saving your troops and that is all this is. Pisses me off, every time.
With all the best of intentions, a person can put themselves into a position to be a victim. If the doctor thought it necessary to drive into the middle of a firefight, she needed to have some symbol about her person, other than a burka, to identify her. There are “rules of engagement” for medical personnel, just like for soldiers. Those are precisely for keeping them alive long enough to help wounded combatants. Jonn is correct: a white flag, a medical symbol, something, and that doctor probably would have been accurately identified and spared, at least from a direct killing shot.
That’s why it’s called “the fog of war”. While tragic things happen, none of us were there and inside the situation as it unfolded. The real tragedy is that he is being brought up on, I’m assuming, an Article 32 hearing to begin with.
I know firsthand what kind of stress that being accused and having to prepare for an ART 32 brings. It damn near killed me, I can’t imagine what SFC Taylor is suffering through having to deal with his injuries and multiple painful surgeries.
What a shitty double standard. The WH can drop hellfire missiles on a politicians whim, but they have no problem with serving charges on a NCO who is in the hospital with no nose, a torn up face, and breathing through a tube. I have emailed his lawyer asking a defense fund to donate to and I’m awaiting a reply.
“White House counterterrorism advisor John Brennan on Sunday defended the administration’s campaign of drone missile attacks against militants while acknowledging that the air strikes have sometimes killed noncombatants.
“Unfortunately, in war, there are casualties, including among the civilian population,” Brennan said on ABC News “This Week,” answering a question about the covert drone program. U.S. missile attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere are not officially acknowledged by the administration but are frequently discussed indirectly.”
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/04/brennan-drone-attacks.html
Past time to get the fuck out of Afghanistan.
If a tragic accident has become murder then there are going to be some rich lawyers from handling all the murder convictions of motorists accidentally killing joggers who didn’t wear reflective clothing, Doctors who in good faith make a misdiagnosis, good Samaritans who inadvertently kill an accident victim by moving them to safety, someone who spooks a horse that dumps and kills the rider, and everything else under the sun.
Our Fed govt has been a bunch of useless backstabbing assholes, now, they’ve made the military legal system a joke. I’m sure that whoever decied this sergeant should be tried is just trying to make all the asshole terrorist feel better because we shouldn’t upset them anymore.
Fu– that country and everybody who lives there.
It’s so easy in a battle to lite up the wrong person…if the doc had worn a medic’s armband, then maybe nothing would have happened.
insane…I’m glad I retired.
I’d also like to add that I’ve seen numerous photos, watched lots of live feeds, and heard plenty of firsthand accounts of Coalition forces shielding civilians caught up in firefights (the instance I’m immediately reminded of listed below.) Obviously there’s no penchant for killing civilians in firefights. People are forgetting that civilians have a certain amount of person responsibility in these situations. Namely: if there’s a firefight you’re caught in take cover while ensuring you are clearly unarmed and not an aggressor, and STAY AWAY from those you aren’t caught in.
Dr. Hikmat had incredibly selfless intentions, and her death is a tragedy that will be more of a punishment to SFC Taylor than any criminal sentence could ever be. She unfortunately used some very bad judgement, and did something along the lines of joining police in a high speed chase or jumping up in a hostage situation to direct a SWAT team.
My condolences to Dr. Hikmat’s family.
http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/522/marinesprotectfathernso.jpg
Ann, very well said! All I will add is that — unless there is something major not out there — this prosecution is purely political and despicable.
It happens and nothing can be done about it. I nearly shot a crippled because the bottom of his crutch looked like the handgard of a Dragonov SVD as he waived it at a car that nearly hit him.
This guy was in an active fight and I am sure he was not looking for civillians to gun down. What is being done to him reminds me of a simular case during Just Cause when a young lieutenant put up an SFC or 1st Sgt for killing four suspected PDF detainees.
The detainees were being searched at a checkpoint when either one of them, or someone in a passing car, tossed a grenade at teh soldiers wounding several.
The senior SNCO then killed the four detainees believing that they were armed and that one of them had pulled the grenade. What elsew as the guy to do? Thankfully he walked on all charges.
And this administration wonders why vets would dip their toes in the water if told it was wet. We’ve been bent over and ass-raped on so many levels so many times, shit like this just doesn’t surprise me anymore.
And THAT, boys and girls, is the really pathetic part.
This is bullshit. Obviously if the Administration wanted to it could put an end to this.
Keep fighting SFC Taylor!
Cunts who signed off on these charges….I hope you contract full blown AIDS.
Our country is in a bad spot……we have bitch boy spineless leadership, the bitch boys, and literal dick suckers are rising through the ranks and are becoming decision makers.
Fuck these bastards….but we all know a jury of his peers is the best deal he is getting. Want to know who presided over his 32 hearing…..dumb fuck
This insanity goes well with the other inanities in prior years. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Let us know about a legal defense fund. He will be needing it.
OWB, I second the legal defense fund bit. I’m living the ramen and Easy Mac existence, but I can at least send a little bit his way!
*sarcasm*
SFC Taylor was supposed
to wait for the return of his FOIA request ??
Still boiling mad here. This is such a complete crock.
And have forwarded that link to the LAT story to a couple dozen friends. And a couple dozen associates. Maybe that was more like 50. Most of them vets.
Maybe even a mailing list of retirees. Might have been a reflex action. Perhaps they will arrest me for not getting clearance from higher before hitting the send button?
Due process.
The sergeant has to go through it.
Our UCMJ-based system of military justice is better than anything civilians get, because our system is based on the law, not the lawyers and judge’s affinity for each other.
Due process and our system of justice is the best in the US of A, and the sergeant will do well.
You have got to be shitting me. No Red Cross/Red Cressent and rolls into a fire fight, they are fair game. Who was the commander who thought that there was enought there for charges?
Bobo, given the tactics our enemies employ I have to say I’d be suspicious of anyone running around with a Red Cross/Red Crescent in a firefight unless I’d met them prior, or could reasonably verify they were legit noncombatants.
I suspect the reason she made no attempt to meet with us, or even just notify one of the many patrols she had to have encountered in a low key manner was because of that scumbag Bradley Manning. Thousands of Iraqis trusted us to pass along everything from missing relative notifications, random sectarian violence victims whose corpses were in the street, or that some insurgents had set up shop building IEDs in a residential area. Unfortunately Ethan McCord’s jerkoff fantasy let all those documents loose on the internet so I imagine there are a good many Iraqis who tried to stay as non-partisan as possible whose families and themselves are now missing their heads.
So if I were Dr. Hikmat I probably wouldn’t want to so much as try Morse Code eyeblinks informing us of her intentions. The insurgency wouldn’t know what being a neutral noncombatant aid worker meant if they got stoned to death with copies of the Geneva Conventions.
My advice to all young people: stay out of the military. The Armed Forces are totally FUBAR.
Glad we are getting out of that bunghole.
Bad enough we cannot fight a REAL war out there. Now our troops have their arms tied behind their backs. They go out into a hostile zone with the nagging thought in their heads that they might be charged with anything for defending themselves.
Screw that place.
Harp1034, and you base this opinion of yours on what? That things aren’t perfect or easy? Go cry me a river. Shirking responsibility because something is difficult is the sort of logic children screaming for candy in the grocery store operate under.
I know Sfc Taylor personally..we both served in the 54th Eng Bn 130th eng bdg. And oif3 05-07 Together.I trust his judgment in the decision he made which landed him here in the first place.any service member who had engaged the enemy in a fire fight knows the confusion that comes with the doctor did not deserve that but she should have been wearing her issued red cross or wave to the troops or something.cause I that was a soldier who got killed while not wearing his issued gear the family who not received the sgli money.but a civilian gets accidentally killed while running behind sodiers in the confusion of a fire fight with the Taliban and not to mention later got his face blown off by an IED and they want to prosecute him..this is a reason why we are losing troops out there cause they are afraid to act as they were trained cause they will end up in jail. I support Sfc Taylor and his decision .hooaahh…
There’s an official support page on facebook for SFC Taylor. Check it out:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/In-Support-of-SFC-Walter-Taylor/407113582661313
JJones44 Beat me to it but I want to give it a bump…
[…] Jason sends us a link to the Facebook page set up to support SFC Walter Taylor, the young sergeant we talked about here who mistakenly killed an Afghan doctor who was acting suspiciously in the middle of a […]
The only thing this NCO is guilty of is having a tight shot group. The doctor’s death, while tragic,, is her fault. Shit happens when bullets are flying.
First and foremost I have seen first hand what takes place during combat and see soldiers ripped apart by the enemy. Do you really think in the middle of people trying to kill him and his men he is gonna let someone randomly pull up and not pull the trigger? Cars are a number one threat and I would’ve done the same thing. It’s a shame we are even having this Convo. If you want to render aide post it visible for all to see. How about we have all these government officials getting paid 6 figures take off those slacks and put on a uniform before they open their mouths. While we do the dirty work for pocket change and then have this man a hero be put on trial. UGH this upsets me so bad.
[…] on SFC Walter Taylor? August 2nd, 2012 We talked about SFC Walter Taylor a few months ago before his article 32 investigation. Now it seems that the Article 32 Board has recommended that he […]