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 9 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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I was there 2013-2014 and id say that's pretty accurate. But, why do we need to bring up all the negativeness? Mississippi guard had the lowest incidents and their 1st Sgts motto was, "The skies the limit, just don't get caught." Jersey had a bonified back alley fight club going on until the whole leadership got relieved of duty. Ive seen some interesting things over there.
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War is an atrocity. Sadly, atrocities beget atrocities. However, the professor does shed light on one interesting aspect of atrocities. Atrocities are aberrant behavior among civilized people which the allied forces represent. We react with shock and shame when anyone so much as suggests that our people are guilty of committing them which in itself proves that we are civilized. If the professor were fair and balanced in his "report" he would reflect on the atrocities committed by the terrorists. Why doesn't he? There's no need. The terrorists advertise their atrocities with great pride thus proving that they are uncivilized, stone age barbarians... (Maybe I should retract that last part. I don't want to insult any stone age barbarians who might be lurking on this discussion thread)
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SPC Sean O'Sullivan
War is hell. One man's atrocity is anothers survival. The sad fact is that war creates a situation that brings out the worst in men and women. We can't tell our troops go do this job, and then handcuff them with rules of engagement that no sane person would try and live with.
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If you are having personal misconduct. It's starts at the Top discipline your troops. Granted with no disrespect most of our troops had what I consider no discipline as children. Now we have problems. In my opinion a cover up is misconduct. Fess up and correct the problem make some examples of the perpetrators and have a good come back. Bring pride to your troops. Cover ups make all active duty look bad. Including vets it's a reflection on all of us.
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