Newark lawyer Paul Bergrin tries out an intriguing strategy in his defense of four U.S. paratroopers charged with murdering Iraqi prisoners. If I understand the counselor correctly, he is arguing that his clients lack the honesty and decency required to gun down three helpless and blindfolded men in cold blood.
Specialist Hunsaker and Private Clagett are accused of spraying the three men with automatic weapons fire as they ran away, barefooted and toward no obvious cover. Sergeant Girouard is accused of devising a plan to kill the men that involved cutting their cuffs off, punching Private Clagett and cutting Specialist Hunsaker to give the appearance of their having been attacked by the men, and then allowing the two soldiers to kill the men from several yards away as they ran, pulling off their blindfolds.
A fourth soldier, Specialist Juston R. Graber, was accused of “mercy killing” one of the three Iraqi men as he lay dying, with a head shot that pierced the man’s blindfold. Specialist Graber admitted killing the man in a sworn statement given to Army investigators …
“Sergeant Girouard does not have the type of character or integrity to orchestrate this,” Mr. Bergrin added. “Hunsaker is an excellent soldier, nothing but accolades. Private Clagett is a kid; he’s a 22-year-old, immature boy. He does not have the character and integrity to carry out this kind of immoral actions.”
I suppose that defense counsel has to say something, if for no other reason than to attempt to set up an appeal on grounds of having incompetent counsel. With evidence and confession, these four have nothing else to say in their own defense.
This type of rationalization is patterned after the diatribes of Dear Leader and his party. Bush will say just about anything, and then totally negate his own position, sometimes in the same paragraph. But Bush expects his followers to believe whatever version is he spouting at the moment. To our misfortune, all too many do. One prime example is his fequent bipolar swing on the matter of Saddam Hussein's being responsible for 9/11.
Posted by: m on August 5, 2006 7:07 PM