By Sandrea:-OPINION
The ‘Thrill kill’ case that has been reported in the media seems to surprise many that an all American boy would be capable of committing such a monstrous act, even if it is in the heat of battle. I personally cannot understand why anyone should be surprise.
The military is made of individuals that are human beings and somewhere along the line there is a small group of individuals that can be categorised as nut-case and monster. They are not easily identified and they live among us like normal everyday people and if these act of atrocities were not committed then there would be no way of differentiate these individuals.
The unspeakable act of inhumanity that Calvin Gibbs has been charge with is abominable, but we will have to wait for the ‘article 32 hearing. Given the level of the crimes committed it would be unfair to have him drawn and quarter before all the evidence comes to light and therefore following the media report one can only give a general view of one’s opinion.
If an individual have it within them to kill another and those individuals enlist into the arm forces where they are trained to kill and then they are sent into wars then that it is like giving that individual a licence to use human beings for target practice.
Reading the media report as to some of the atrocities that this individual is alleged to have committed would make most normal human beings vomit. It cannot be an easy thing to do killing another human being and there are many soldiers who have to do so to save their lives and the life of their comrades and although they knew that they had no choice but to kill, it still haunt them for many years because they have a conscience within them.
However, there are the minority that killing another human being is seen as just a sport to them these are the ones that will not lose any sleep over this and these are the ones that we have to be concerned about and this is the picture that the media portrayal of Calvin Gibbs.
One of the paragraph in the reported stated “He devised scenarios under which he could kill Afghan civilians, the soldiers said, suggesting in one case that if he and his men came across someone in a village flagged as Taleban-influenced, they could toss a grenade and claim they had been responding to a threat”. How could anyone not see that they were clearly dealing with a warp mind and this person should have never been allowed into combat?
I will be following this ‘Article 32 hearing with interest as I would really like to know what further criminal activities that this soldier will face and what his comrade will say about the man and his character.
What make this distasteful for me is the fact that this individual had others who he was in command of and he could give them any instructions and they would have had to carry it out and if there was anyone in his command that did not agree with him how difficult would that person find it to report their superior. So, not only was he allegedly a killing machine but he had people who he could have commanded to do the same. This is even more of a frightening aspect of this entire saga.
However, let us wait and see the outcome of the hearing, because if this goes to a court martial then it will be a ‘black’ day for the US military and especially for the decent and caring young men who just want to do their jobs protecting their country and the innocent civilians that they are also sent into wars to protect.
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