Mutiny at Camp Taji

Via Cursor.org. this from Kelly Kennedy, Army Times:

     The battalion gave 2nd Platoon the day to recover. then they were scheduled to go back out on patrol in Adhamiya on July 18.

     But when Strickland returned from a mission, he learned 2nd Platoon had failed to roll.

     “A scheduled patrol is a direct order from me,” Strickland said.

     “‘They’re not coming,’” Strickland said he was told. “So I called the platoon sergeant and talked to him. ‘Remind your guys: These are some of the things that could happen if they refuse to go out.’ I was irritated they were thumbing their noses. I was determined to get them down there.”

     But, he said, he didn’t know the whole platoon, except for Ybay, had taken sleeping medications prescribed by mental health that day, according to Ybay.

     Strickland didn’t know mental health leaders had talked to 2nd Platoon about “doing the right thing.”

     He didn’t know 2nd Platoon had gathered for a meeting and determined they could no longer function professionally in Adhamiya — that several platoon members were afraid their anger could set loose a massacre.

     “We said, ‘No.’ If you make us go there, we’re going to light up everything,” DeNardi said. “There’s a thousand platoons. Not us. We’re not going.”

     They decided as a platoon that they were done, DeNardi and Cardenas said, as did several other members of 2nd Platoon. At mental health, guys had told the therapist, “I’m going to murder someone.” And the therapist said, “There comes a time when you have to stand up,” 2nd Platoon members remembered. For the sake of not going to jail, the platoon decided they had to be “unplugged.”

Those are truly good soldiers. Knowing that their anger will lead them to kill innocent people, they take a stand. 

Their cups are full. It’s time for them to come home.