shakran

With respect Elphaba, they are not. The root causes started when we invaded iraq without equipping our military properly, and without enough soldiers on the ground to get the job done efficiently and safely. When we did that, we told the soldiers "Guys, we don't really give a flying crap about you or your health or safety. We're just going to send you in there now because we think it's politically expedient to do so, and if your lack of armor or troop support gets you killed, that's just too damn bad."

You tell a guy that, tell him you don't give a crap about him and are using him as a pawn that is 100% expendable, tell him he's going into a hostile situation that he's got a really good chance of dying in, but he can't bring any body armor. . . .and then you give him a gun and group him with a few dozen other guys who are in the same boat?

What in hell did we THINK was going to happen?

I'm not excusing it, I'm not saying we shouldn't punish those who did it. But I am saying that if we want to see that it doesn't happen again, we need to go much deeper than these specific soldiers, and their chain of command.

We need to look at the entire military and make some serious changes.

We could maybe start by not forbidding soldiers from wearing protective armor.