Sergeant in charge of Afghan "Kill Team" gets life in prison for abusing his leadership position.

Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs

Courtesy of The News Tribune:

A Joint Base Lewis-McChord sergeant will spend the rest of his life in jail for abusing his leadership position and persuading junior soldiers to join him in plots to murder Afghan civilians in combat-like engagements last year. 

Staff Sgt. Calvin Gibbs’ conviction Thursday affirms the Army’s depiction of him as a cold-blooded murderer who called Afghans “dirty savages” and openly cut fingers from corpses to bind his collaborators into a rogue “kill team.” 

He was found guilty of 15 criminal charges, including three murders. The murders carry a minimum sentence of life in prison. 

Gibbs appeared shocked as the jury forewoman read the verdict. His wife, Chelsy, sobbed. A sentencing session is under way in which Gibbs could win the possibility of parole. 

Gibbs, 26, fought the charges, arguing he was framed by pot smoking junior soldiers who shifted blame to him for their crimes in exchange for lighter punishment from the Army. He insisted he thought the killings took place in legitimate combat in enemy territory. 

But Gibbs couldn’t overcome layered testimony from his platoon mates. A five-soldier jury panel made up of three officers and two senior noncommissioned officers did not buy his defense.

As I am sure many of you remember this is the same group of murderers which included Wasilla resident, and Track Palin hockey pal, Jeremy Morlock, who was sentenced to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty this last March.

These crimes are a terrible black mark on the United States, and its military, and I hope that this sentence will signal to the people of the world that we do not condone this type of abhorrent behavior even in a time of war. (Even illegal wars.)

However we also must realize that this may be the direct result of the Bush administration dramatically lowering the standards for military recruitment in a desperate attempt to meet recruitment goals and to keep young American bodies feeding the ravenous appetite for blood in Iraq.

I would like to believe that in a different time Morlock, with his history of violence and substance abuse,  would never have been accepted into the military.  The same should hold true of Gibbs, but because the military was fighting two wars and stretched well beyond its capabilities standards were lowered to allow just about anybody with a pulse to take up arms and represent this country in an environment where they were face to face with unspeakable horror, and where their grasp on their humanity was challenged at every turn. And this is the unfortunate result.

Sadly for the innocent Afghans who were targeted by this "kill team" there was nobody responsible enough to keep these deeply flawed men in check, and they were allowed to act as cold blooded assassins instead of soldiers.

I have little doubt that this incident, like Abu Ghraib before it, is only a small sampling of the atrocities committed on behalf of the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I only wish I could believe that America would learn its lesson and NEVER send our citizens to foreign lands to kill their people on behalf of the military industrial complex. But I once fooled myself into believing that after Vietnam, and I am no longer nearly so naive.