4 Marines to Get Courts-Martial in Japan

IF it is proved that these guys raped the Japanese woman, they will go to prison.

As for the Marines in the "puppy over a cliff" video, they are in just about as much trouble if it was a hoax/prank as they would be in if it was real. They will do brig time either way.

Three Non-Commissioned, an E-5 and two E-7's. This is a dark day for the NCO corp for all of the services.

There are too many sections on this webpage where the comment sections are closed.
For instance the bomb in NY... could that have something to do with the puppy story?
That is hardly an isolated indicent.

I know it would choke the flow of fresh cannon fodder for the military but if recruiters screen out the felons and the gang members, many of these attrocities can be avoided. Or are they raping them over there so they don't have to rape them at home?

They"re a currently more US military personal on Okinawa then Japanese defenders during World War 2. 27,000 Air Forces personal and Marines, plus 22,000 family members. Okinawa was given back to Japan 27 years after the war, but the Japanese government takes little interest in the lives of native Okinawans, 85% of which oppose US occupation. Okinawa has the dubious nickname of Rape Island, which is generally ignored by Japanese authorities.

The Mariana Island chain, also liberated from the Japanese during the war is now a US protectorate, which has not been protected very well, in recent years. Tom Delay as majority whip blocked investigations of Chinese clothing manufactures, which manufacture for US designer labels located in the islands. Since the Mariana"s Islands are a US territory, designer goods can claim their over priced crap is "Made in America", while using Chinese labor mostly woman from poor families, whom in many cases use their life savings to send their daughters to what they think is the US. Instead they encounter rape, prostitution, forced abortion, indentured servitude etc. Tom Delay visited the Islands several times, on one occasion taking his whole family, during a party in his honor; he called the place a "Triumph of American Capitalism". Why are the religious ones the biggest scumbags?

No one should be surprised to hear about such attrocities being committed by our troops. To begin with, America, with all of her imperialistic tendencies, has bases all over the world, situated within cultures whose people don't want us there. Further complicating the matter is the fact that more often than not, our troops don't understand the people and cultures among whom they have been stationed (not that rape is understandable in any culture). Adding to these peoblems, our military recruiters then lower the bar regarding acceptable standards among prospective recruits, just to be able to fill their recruitment quotas -- a troubling result of George Bush's immoral war in Iraq repelling many upstanding would-be patriotic young citizens who would otherwise be proud to serve their country in uniform. The result of these compounding blunders is what we are hearing about today. Here's a solution:
(1) Put our troops under intense cultural sensitivity training regarding the countries that they are stationed in.
(2) Punish lawbreakers with no mercy.
(3) Close down many of these obselete bases (which are remnants of an archaic cold war mentality) situated in foreign lands and get our troops the hell out of there, since we have no business being there to begin with.
(4) End our immoral and illegal war in Iraq, and avoid future illegal invasions of innocent countries by rejecting arrogant and delusional "leaders" like George Bush at the voting booth.
*These last two actions will automatically reduce the number of troops required in the military, thus the recruitment standards bar can be raised to reject undesirable and unacceptable recruits.

It is always amazing that the most judgemental people, the people most ready to start wars, defend the most eggregious violations of human rights and dignity, the people most ready to kill, are the one's such as President Clinton, President Bush, and Vice President Cheney, Mr. Hagee, Mr. Robertson(to name just a few) who have never themselves served in uniform, combat, or even in humanitarian service in a theatre of war. There is no need to comment on the bigoted comments of certain posters to this article, ignorance and bigotry is its own punishment, and frankly no one who adheres to the principles of the Bible would dishonour the value of any human life. It is essential to appreciate that we indeed do have a volunteer army and a National Gaurd, neither of whom was told the truth by the present or previous administrations, the were sold a slick 21st century advertising campaign promising employment, education, and monetary rewards. And, if they are guilty of anything, it is in believing in their government, their nation, and the appropriate nature of their deployments. We are a nation with urban centres that our filled with unemployed young people who are desperate for a chance at the American dream - that is what they were promised - and instead what they were given were lies, a coffin, a wheel chair, a shattered mind, and at the very best a return to the very state of unemployment and poverty from which they came - and so - as fair minded Americans do you feel it is appropriate to blame an entire group of young men and women who are serving our nation for the criminal or anti-social behavior of a few or perhaps is it more logical to refer the Bush administration to the Hague for misleading our nation and causing the needless deaths of millions as well as forcing the United States to the brink of financial insolvency.

Finally, for the unbelievably ignorant posting in regards to rape, rape is an act of pure unadulurated violence and has absolutely nothing to do with sexual or hormonal gratification - please educate yourself through any basic academic, medical, psychological or sociological text or rape crisis centre or police department. The military, not simply the US, but most modern armed forces, conduct extensive psychological and peer evaluations, but just as in common society, there will be deviations from the norm, and if these individuals are convicted of the charges brought against them then they will face the requisite military justice as they should. And as for the outrageous comment about providing prostitutes to our military service men and women, I think that poster should educate him/herself about the clearly moral/ethical/intellectual/and legal failure of such an inane suggestion (see also comfort women Japan WWII).

And, finally for "williamscody" you sir/madame, are the adding nothing but beligerance to discourse in this nation. In uniform, the only differences that matter are life and death, politics, nationality, race, religion, creed, gender, are all set aside for the achievement of the objective and the limitation of casualties. Finally, although revisionists would like to believe that the US won WWII and WWI and everyother conflict singlehandedly and that every other allied nation is a coward, the factual analysis is quiet different, it was a unified global allied effort to defeat the enemy. Education is the best cure for bigotry and hatred, our Armed Forces, do not need defenders with an agenda of partisan politics or bigotry - those brave young men and women are fighting and dying for all of America regardless of race, gender, religion, creed, nationality of origin, political affiliation, or any other quantifiable measure.

God Bless.

Well, I expect the NYT will do another bogus story about our troops being mad out-of-control rapist like the bogus story about them being murderers and committing crimes....sure Liberal support the troops, what hypocrites.

It won't be long , since Iraq continues to get better and better, the Liberals and the NYT will have to start running stories like "Soldiers commit JAYWALKING.....the horror"!!!

The army must be realistic, these soldiers are young men at their physical prime. How long do you expect their urges to get bottled up especially in a far away land. I say get ladies from the world's oldest profession to relief them. Er there got to be control of course otherwise they will be too weak to do their drill.

I thought there used to be some honor connected with our Marine Corps. "The Times they are a-changin" must apply now. Not only are these men accused of rape, but the video showing the Marine throwing a puppy over the cliff really made me sick. These are men of honor? Not in my book. Maybe a better screening process is needed to weed out the total psychos.

Funny how life is ... if 4 Marines are found guilty of raping a Japanese woman in Japan they face Court Martial ... if a Marine is found guilty of raping a Filipina in the Philippines ... the US Government threatens the Philippines, through the US Embassy, to not provide humanitarian aid in the case of a natural disaster unless the Marine is turned over to US Custody.

That's parity for you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subic_rape_case

Don't be too harsh on the Marines...every second of their training is devoted to accomplish the mission and fuck the casualties.

Occasionaly that mission, particularly in wartime, is warped by the fact that they are human - with human fears and human lusts.

I am not saying that they should have done what they did, but I am saying that if you live in a world of being shot and and "stop loss" so you can't even get out when you are supposed to, it is different...and if you cannot understand that and forgive them, then...

You'd make a good Republican.

up until mei lei and haditha, every one was proud of the military. not any more.there are to many sadistic psychopaths running loose protected by their superiors..no one is ever found to be guilty any more.when this case comes to a conclusion, the determination will be that these service men were not guilty of any thing other than exuberant courtship. pathetic..

Just for the record, the 14-year-old said she's refusing to proceed because she can't bear to be beaten up by the media anymore. The view among the right wing news media over there is that she should have known barbarous American soldiers aren't safe to be around, so she deserved what she got.

Under Japanese law, if the victim refuses to proceed, the matter ends on the spot. There will be no further action by police or the court.