Wuterich's story

60 Minutes re-aired the program they ran last fall (I think it was in the fall) on the story of United States Marine Corps. (USMC) Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, and the massacre at Haditha.

All of Wuterich's men/women who were under him have had their charges dropped since they last aired to program, but Wuterich's Court martial is being held-up because 60 Minutes refuses to give their full interview tapes after they had been subpoenaed by the USMC. Moreover, the original charges of murder have been dropped to manslaughter.

After re-watching this story on Wuterich and his man, I think this man made a dreadful call.

However, with the pressures of combat on this man who had never seen combat before, putting him in charge of men and women in combat, and not giving him some allowance to really F-up seems harsh to this blogger.

No matter the training, I have to feel there is a large percentage of men who, while leading other men/women in a combat situation when their motorcade gets hit by an IED...would flip out as much as it appears this guy did. They, and perhaps I, would go all out in an effort to find the perp of such an attack, civilians be damned.

Wuterich seems to have gotten some leeway and some forgiveness here after his story ran on CBS. Clearly, he bears a ton of responsibility for leading his men/women into such a massacre, but...

...is it possible to for the military to develop some type of "test" (much like those admittedly abominable Supreme Court "tests") to provide some allowance to give these men/women a break when they make such a horrific mistake. Damning soldiers to a Dishonorable Discharge when a young soldier makes a terrible mistake seems unfair without taking into serious account the circumstances (eg: emotional pressure, IQ, experience in combat).

In short, I feel bad for Wuterich who appears to have been pushed into a combat-control situation he had no place of being in due to the reality that not a lot of young men are enlisting in this ill-fated "war."