screw you g-dub, so says canada-- it DOES count!!!!
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/07/07/10165/

Is that site a "liberal" love fest? I don't see one comment to the contrary of any of the others. Granted if he saw those abuses going on he should have ran it up the chain and not stopped until something happened. The truth of the matter is he is a deserter. I don't see how that is courageous. Yes, standing up for your morals is great but he did it the wrong way. Maybe he isn't a fighter or maybe he's tired of fighting, but that is not courageous. What would have been courageous is if he told the IG about all the crap going on, if the IG doesn't listen I'm sure someone will. I'd take it up the chain all the way to the President if I had to, and if he refused to do anything I'd go to the media, and if they refused I'd go on the damn streets.

Hearing stories like this makes me want to go over there. I mean if these people are doing such a piss poor job maybe I could make colonel by the end of my first tour.

like the chain of command is gonna help---- (see abu grahib)--- as in all arenas, i'm sure theres good guys who take no shit, no shortcuts, and run a tight ship---- then again, on the other hand, theres assholes amokin, and opprotunists, and sadists-- havent you seen where the 'standards' have been 'lowered' to accomodate the less than fit in order to meet enlistment quotas? n yep, commondreams is a love fest--- but the point i wanted to make here is i'm glad that the geneva convention (the part about what is acceptable to do to a human being, civilian, and home and property) is getting the respect ( i can never write that word without singing it...) it merits as a multinational agreement..... Bushydom has declared the Realm bulletproof and not at all subject to laws and restrictions of any sort, which, if every single citizen also claimed that right, well, i think we'd better go cave shoppin mighty damn quick... there are excellent historical reasons for "rules" in war--- because as any seasoned soldier would tell you, it . is . Hell .

Geneva Conventions
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia | Date: 2007

Series of four international agreements (1864, 1906, 1929, 1949) signed in Geneva, Switz., that established the humanitarian principles by which the signatory countries are to treat an enemy's military and civilian nationals in wartime. The first convention was initiated by Jean-Henri Dunant; it established that medical facilities were not to be war targets, that hospitals should treat all wounded impartially, that civilians aiding the wounded should be protected, and that the Red Cross symbol should serve to identify those covered by the agreement. The second convention amended and extended the first. The third stated that prisoners of war should be treated humanely and that prison camps should be open to inspection by neutral countries. The 1949 conventions made further provisions for civilians falling into a belligerent's hands. Guerrilla combatants were extended protection in two 1977 amendments, which the U.S. did not sign. Violations of the Geneva Conventions were among the crimes included in the jurisdictions of the international criminal tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (1993) and Rwanda (1994) and the International Criminal Court (2002). Hague Conventions; war crime.

The chain of command does work in most cases. In the case of your boss being the perpetrator you go to his boss, if he is corrupt or inept you go to his boss, and so on and so on. Do you know how many people I had to go to just to talk to my squadron commander? I believe squadron is equivalent to battalion in the Army. I had my supervisor, his supervisor, then it went to the section superintendent, then from him to the flight chief, from him to the flight commander, from him to the squadron chief, and then finally to the commander. That's the condensed version, leaving out vice commanders and first sergeants. Imagine if you would the entire chain from Private (in my case Airman) Nobody all the way to the president, it's a long chain and a lot of people to go through. I do not believe for one second that he went through the chain. And even if no one in the chain of command will help there is the IG, inspector-general, who you can go to directly.

I could see him deserting if he went through his chain and got no results but I doubt he did, so that just makes him either a quitter or a coward.