Posted on Aug 25, 2015
"US Army Covers Up Military Atrocities in War Zones" – US Professor
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From: Sputnik News
US military camps in Afghanistan have disturbingly low standards of personal conduct and discipline, and there is a widespread tendency in all levels of the chain of command to cover up military atrocities, Dr. David Gibbs from the University of Arizona told Radio Sputnik.
Since the US military is very sensitive to its public image and doesn't want to let the public know about how things really are in many of its bases, there is a tendency among officers to cover up atrocities and acts of personal misconduct.
"They [military atrocities] are certainly much more common than we hear about them," Dr. Gibbs told Radio Sputnik, adding that cover-ups are often done by smaller military units themselves to avoid getting in trouble.
At the same time, military officers at a higher level don't really bother investigating incidents since exposing potential crimes could then affect the entire military chain.
Poor discipline and substance abuse have also become a plague for many military units stationed in hot sports, like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Soldier who are in difficult situations every day engage in substance abuse to cope with their surroundings, Dr. Gibbs said.
"I think substance abuse, alcohol abuse, mental illness — these are very natural outcomes of war, unfortunately."
Infamous US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who killed 16 civilians in the Afghan province of Kandahar, was drinking alcohol on the night of the massacre, violating rules of the combat zones.
http://sputniknews.com/military/20150823/ [login to see] /us-army-atrocities-cover-up-middle-east-gibbs-university-professor.html#ixzz3jpZHpLlO
US military camps in Afghanistan have disturbingly low standards of personal conduct and discipline, and there is a widespread tendency in all levels of the chain of command to cover up military atrocities, Dr. David Gibbs from the University of Arizona told Radio Sputnik.
Since the US military is very sensitive to its public image and doesn't want to let the public know about how things really are in many of its bases, there is a tendency among officers to cover up atrocities and acts of personal misconduct.
"They [military atrocities] are certainly much more common than we hear about them," Dr. Gibbs told Radio Sputnik, adding that cover-ups are often done by smaller military units themselves to avoid getting in trouble.
At the same time, military officers at a higher level don't really bother investigating incidents since exposing potential crimes could then affect the entire military chain.
Poor discipline and substance abuse have also become a plague for many military units stationed in hot sports, like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Soldier who are in difficult situations every day engage in substance abuse to cope with their surroundings, Dr. Gibbs said.
"I think substance abuse, alcohol abuse, mental illness — these are very natural outcomes of war, unfortunately."
Infamous US Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales, who killed 16 civilians in the Afghan province of Kandahar, was drinking alcohol on the night of the massacre, violating rules of the combat zones.
http://sputniknews.com/military/20150823/ [login to see] /us-army-atrocities-cover-up-middle-east-gibbs-university-professor.html#ixzz3jpZHpLlO
Posted in these groups: 
Warfare
Afghanistan
Warfare Afghanistan
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 15
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"US military camps in Afghanistan have disturbingly low standards of personal conduct and discipline"...obviously this guy has never been deployed and seen the FF games played on the big FOBs like Phoenix, Lightning, and Kandahar. They try hard to bring the garrison Army there, and after being on the edge of BFE, I HATED going to any of them. Are there issues? Yes, but he's taking it to the extremes. I've seen what he talks about with substance abuse, alcohol abuse, and mental illness, but like the good MAJ said, where is he getting his info from? But he also brings up a valid point; CDR's do try to hide things from the public. Pat Tillman as an example. Not all will do this, but it has happened more than once. Does the author know the number of troops who have had their careers ended quickly for mistakes and ignorance while deployed? I would wager he has no clue and there are loads of commands who don't play when it comes to that downrange.
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SFC (Join to see)
My thoughts exactly. Nicely articulated. More than likely the author is assuming, like most "authorities" in the combat zones: postulating from the relative safety and fobbit life of the super FOBs. Additionally, General Order #1 forbids any kind of alcohol use, punishable by UCMJ at the least and in some cases by court martial. My experience trends to a lot of the bad behavior being perpetrated by the various civilian contractors downrange on the super FOBS, not the uniformed military as a whole.
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Did he see this first hand? Does he have a study and statistics to base his comments on? Where did this come from? Radio Sputnik....is this guy a card carrying communist out to make our military look like a bunch of hoods and criminals? The only case he mentions is one that was investigated and convicted. I'm confused.
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SGT Jeremy Weinrich
To answer your question, pretty much. He's spent his entire adult life in academia, has no military background and is a self-admitted Marxist. That's from the info I've found on him anyways.
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