Soldier Testifies: Peer Pressure Made Me Hit Detainee With A Bat

Soldier says he saw detainee beaten
LARRY O'DELL | August 13, 2007 07:35 PM EST | AP



PETERSBURG, Va. — A soldier testified Monday that he saw a sergeant beat an Iraqi detainee with a baseball bat, then himself assaulted another detainee when goaded by the sergeant.

Spc. Angel M. Bonilla was the first witness at Sgt. 1st Class Timothy L. Drake's court-martial for the alleged beating and an attempted cover-up. The military judge dismissed one of the most serious charges against Drake earlier in the day.

Drake, 40, is accused of striking the detainee in December 2003 at Forward Operating Base Mercury near the Iraqi town of Fallujah. He allegedly hit the detainee in the abdomen, hip and head with a baseball bat. He also is accused of kicking a detainee in the back.

Bonilla said that after he saw Drake strike the detainee with the aluminum bat, Drake told him, "B, come get a piece of this."

Bonilla said he grabbed a bat from outside the tent and struck a second detainee. He said he regretted it afterward. Asked by the prosecutor, Cpl. Jamal Rhinehardt, why he did it, Bonilla said, "I felt pressured to do it, sir."

Bonilla pleaded guilty late last year to giving false statements to officials and assault consummated by battery, the Army said. He was sentenced to four months' confinement, suspended after 90 days, and his rank was reduced from sergeant.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20070813/soldier-detainee-abuse/

....

I just don't get it

(...never mind...he probably would...):eyes:

judge these young troops that are under such pressure, some are on their 2 and 3 deployments, you want to blame someone, blame the people in charge.

not follow an unlawful order.

If his unit was raping a woman, and told him "come get some of this" and he raped her too, would he have no responsibility for his actions because of pressure?

one problem nobody has defined what "Illegal is in this Illegal War"

No legal body in the US or even in the Hague has come out and declared that the invasion is bona fide illegal. On the books, it may be illegal, but black ink on paper is useless unless somebody acts on the violation.

They KNOW what are legal orders, they are TAUGHT the Geneva, etc.

...U.S. troops got all the way through the Spanish American war, two World Wars and Korea(I'm not so sure about Vietnam, I'll admit)without torturing ANYBODY.

Are you saying none of THEM were in a combat zone?

Soldiers are responsible for their own actions, if they act illegally, then they should be punished, same goes for those in charge, from the President down, no excuses for ANY of them.

So yeah, I can judge them.

This isn't the behavior of a stressed soldier. And, the military shouldn't monkey around with the investigation.

if the amount of time in a combat zone is the rule to judge by, then take my 2 tours in 'Nam and use them to judge with, I faced the same kind of Judgement and the same kind of trashing from people when I came back my 2nd time, and for a long time, most if not all of my friends were judged by people who had no Idea what they were talking about. I don't condone torture, however why is it always the lower ranks that get this kind of black mark....

It's the same defense the Nazis and their soldiers used.

I can judge whomever the hell I want. I've had many people in my family serve bravely in the military, including two grandfathers still alive who NEVER came home for years -- one in the Pacific, one in Europe. They fought at D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima, etc. One of them served in Korea. Cousins and uncles were served in Nam, some for multiple tours, NONE REMFs. SA cousin who was injured in the Gulf War, a BIL who was hurt very badly on a nigh jump in Bosnia, who will never run, ride a bike, lift more than 30 pounds, or walk upright again. Do NOT tell me I'm trashing you. I support our troops more than people who excuse the heinous actions of some sociopaths in uniform and thus tar all of our honorable men and women with the same brush. Soldiers do NOT act that way, not even under stress. Criminals do. Just ebcause teh higher ups don't give a fuck doesn't eman people can act however the hell they want.

flying into Travis AFB and riding a bus to Oakland, you would have thought that we were all NAZIS, so I don't argue anymore, your views are 2nd hand, Mine are 1st hand. EOM,, Peace

Should their actions simply be excused due to the horrors they've experienced?

I'm very much interested in hearing your insights. Thank you.

honor that a lot of folks lived and died for, however when you are taking 18 and 19 yr old "kids" and not training them properly, some with criminal records and put them in a situation where they have not been taught how to react and have been taught that the only good "ragheads" are dead ones. and then put them somewhere, where the only peer pressure they have to go by is doing what everybody else is doing and those that are doing it are the people in charge, then you can only expect to get the results that we see happening,,,I don't condone it and I it makes my blood boil just like it did in 'Nam when I saw it there, but I can also understand where it came from,, what makes me real mad is when they convict some kid for it, and there aren't 3 other people being convicted for dereliction of duty for not controlling it, I am sorry this is long but you ask me,,,,

They're wearing too much makeup as well?

You have to admit it's a great image, though.

Unless you tortured detainees.

None of the soldiers in my family would ever defend him. I don't understand why you would.

I Judge his peers,,,,,EOM

Trained for weeks/months/years to obey every command from his superiors?
Was he abused by his superiors if he did not obey?
Was he in a war zone where he feared for his life daily?
Was he angry, exhausted, afraid of being abandoned by his friends if he did not go along?

Conformity under extreme conditions is not the same as jumping off the bridge when your friends do.

I don't excuse what these people do. I am certain that we must understand how this happens so we can stop it.

A Situational Perspective on the Psychology of Evil: Understanding How Good People are Transformed into Perpetrators
http://tinyurl.com/2d4nmm

The Lucifer Effect
http://www.lucifereffect.com/

Seriously though, the military IS peer pressure. It doesn't function without esprit de corps, semper fi, etc. which is simply peer pressure painted up in foreign phrases. You don't charge the machine guns and take the hill without it.

Seriously, I think it is a good and justifiable defense-- if it is true. In a combat zone, if you don't conform you will die. Period.

Now, the officer corps from the chimperor on down are responsible for determining the legality and the rules. And they have muddied up the rules so nothing makes any sense. Didn't Gonzo and Von Rumsfeldt determine as long as nobody was crippled or seriously injured, beatings and torture were not only o.k but de rigur?

Didn't save the Good Germans from the gallows, did it?

Spc. Bonilla is not a peer to Sgt. Drake.

But if this and worse hadn't been condoned from the very top, we wouldn't even be discussing it now.

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