The Army doesn't even keep track of domestic violence even though it is rampant.

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/story/16468730/ga-soldier-charged-in-death-of-infant-son

This is sick and these are the "brave" people we're supposed to be so proud of? It seems like this senseless war is bringing out the worst in people.

actualy they do track domestic violence lourdesmanos iv seen plenty idiots get thrown out just after being acuesd of it

@Susi-Oh: sadly, war *always* brings out the worst in people. No one can withstand months - years - of constantly life-threatening stress, being away from home, away from loved ones, always in danger, killing people and standing on alert 24/7 without eventually losing it. What frightens me is that I think we are seeing just the tip of this very large, very dark iceberg.

The Army doesn't even keep track of domestic violence even though it is rampant.

Your provided link shows no evidence of this, lourdes. This is a very sad case, but how do you know the Army isn't tracking this? If this guy had been an insurance salesman, would you have faulted AllState? Just because the person in this case is in the Army, why do you hold the military to a different standard than any other occupation?

The military corrupts and sickens healthy minds in order to turn good people into savage killers. After the landing at Omaha beach after D-day the guns were collected off the beach and it was discovered that most of the soldiers had not actually fired their guns. This led the military to conduct a great deal of psychiatric research into how to turn the healthy mind into the mind of a killer. The problem is, once you have corrupted the mind in this fashion, it is very hard to undo it.

They were just trying to teach that sheep who is the boss and show that they are tough guys.

Beat the coward in the head with the same bat.

I'm a big fan of 'commit the same act on the abuser that the abuser did to the animal'. A little forced empathy could be very beneficial.

MCooper, these guys have serious problems, but a life sentence for beating up a sheep is just too much. They need psychiatric care, not prison sentences. The military is to blame for this.

We have 75,000 ticking time bombs waiting to come home

And some of them are going to make wonderful COPS (insert sarcasm!!) to be turned lose on the citizens of America.

Lord help ya'll.

They are perfect little storm troopers ready for the ranks of the Pigs... what a land of liberty we have.

You are really a sad case for an excuse of an American if you really believe that.

When you deal with young people at war and in great numbers this always happens.

Russians, Afghans, and Pakistanis don't have equal access to electronic video equipment like we do.

If they did, you would see much worse.

And YES military make EXCELLENT employees.

Oh but viewer_ready, they do have video equipment. I guess beating a sheep is far far worse than dragging an enemy soldier into a field and cutting his head off with an ax.

It's proudly posted on the net is you just want to find it.

@Viewer_Ready: I don't think beating a sheep or urinating on dead people is considered a valuable job skill. Neither is hazing a Chinese-American to death or forming a kill squad to murder unarmed civilians and take human remains as trophies from those kills or waterboarding their own kids.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/09/ptsd-at-joint-base-lewis-mcchord-suicides-murders-and-soldiers-waterboarding-their-kids.html

@viewer_ready -You are sadly mistaken. And making a poor excuse by saying '(there are) worse (people)'.. means you should probably receive some psychiatric care yourself. Things of this nature are never excusable. And military people (not dissing them) more times than not make terrible employees, not because they are bad people but because of their training and experiences, along with the lack of care they receive when they get home.

lourdesmanos - This is war. War is cruel. War is immoral. You ask young men and women to do a job you personally wouldn't have the stomach to do, then condemn them when they crack.

You want to punish all of them for what a few do. Then what happens? When they can't support their families do you expect these same young men and women to just sit back and watch their families starve? Perhaps if they become desperate enough, they'll pick up a weapon again and you may be the target...luck with that!

Bruce, ANOTHER DISGRACE.

Wars fought by soldiers are not funded by corporations.

Corporations make money off of supplying them with tools.

YOUR government provides the targets, the tools AND the paycheck.

IF in fact these were soldiers, the will be punished.

One of the prominent signs of being a sociopath........ is the beating, and/or killing of small animals. They usually start there, and move up the food chain...... people, eventually being the ultimate victims.

Technically, you are right, Viewer_Ready. But Bruce did not say the wars are funded by the corporations. He said those corporations benefit from the wars.

The Bush Administration outsourced much of the running of the wars in the Middle East to Halliburton and other corporations -- and I do not know if the Obama Adminstration has been willing or able to change that.

So in reality, under Bush the government created a scenario that would provide optimum profits for the corpoations. Read The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein.

"Behind the ostensible Government sits enthroned an invisible Government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.... This country belongs to the people. Its resources, its business, its laws, its institutions, should be utilized, maintained, or altered in whatever manner will best promote the general interest."

Theodore Roosevelt, in his Autobiography, 1913

Sadly @Bruce, war, itself, is responsible for the loss of humanity and morality whether just or un. I believe these incidents point to a far darker possibility: our troops have been fighting for so long, now, that many of them may no longer identify with humanity. There is no question that the mental stability of our deployed service members is in jeopardy as it naturally would be under such constant ravage by the horrors of combat. Certainly no excuse for these atrocities but I truly fear that if we don't get these people home and into treatment, soon, we are going to begin seeing far worse than this.

@ Viewer_Ready

Of course soldiers aren't funded by corporations. Taxpayers fund them. Corporations just reap the rewards.

And corporate beneficiaries plow millions into the campaigns of the politicians that support the wars.

Explain how troops in Iraq, for example, saved our asses back home? You have been fooled into believing that our endless wars are a noble defense of our nation. Nonsense. They are all about the acquisition of world resources. All wars are the result of greedy rich men plundering the weak. Of course, the rich men don't shed the blood.

@Viewer: @Cuddlemom makes an important, albeit badly vocalized, point. Unfortunately our troops have been deployed for so long, now, and have been savaged by horror to the point that many of them may not be able to function in a domestic environment when they return. It is a sad fact of any war that a certain percentage will not be able to handle the situations that combat puts them in and will become mentally unstable. This is not about berating our brave soldiers, it's about facing the reality that we may be turning some of them into monsters and we are responsible for helping them to reintegrate into society as safely and carefully as possible or there are going to be many new tragedies and traumas as a result.

Piss on all the Taliban y'all want. Just leave the cute little innocent sheep be.

Hey numbnuts, if you are talking about the incident in Falujah, that was not a troop, it was a Blacwater merc.

So Viewer_Ready it's my "boys" right or wrong? This animal brutality was wrong, defacing enemy corpses was really wrong. War and battle is extremely stressful and people need to blow off steam, but if your mind in functioning correctly then you know the difference between right and wrong. And, all this is clearly wrong.

Excuses like "the Taliban do worse" are irrelevant and infantile. We're Americans, these are our soldiers, we are better than that. There is no excuse for this type of behavior by our soldiers. Ever. Period.

@Dane: thank you for your voice of reason and sanity. We, none of us, know the context or situation. We may not like what we see, immediately, but we none of us are worthy to judge based on so little information.

There are better ways of killing live-stock and it is regualted here in the states. Plus someone who takes enjoyment out of such an act is disgusting to say the least. And to hell with rituals, it's time for our nation to grow up and stop thinking that stupid, needless, disgusting acts is in any way shape or form protected by just as equally stupid, needless, disgusting beliefs.

You are a wee bit kooky; people who do this to any life form are sick enough but those who video it so they can watch it later are even worse; Michael Vick's life is changed forever, and rightly so, for doing this kind of stupidity; mammals have deep feelings - all of them, and they most certainly feel pain.

Animals aren't normally beaten before being BBQ'ed. Slit their throats and bleed them! You ruin muscle tissue with baseball bats.

Curt, (sheepfriend girlfriend) kinda went over your head, I guess.

no, fornicate as in rape the sheep

PETA aren't in it for the animals!

Umm... we already have been seeing worse than this. Haven't you been reading the news lately?

really? so they aren't trained for these long intense deployments? hum... when so many others don't sink to that level. hum... no they had this in them before they even joined the military. i wonder how many animals are buried in the woods, or have been left on the side of the road where these fools live.

Shoot it or slit its throat! You're damaging muscle tissue beating it with a bat.

not so . these videos are catching them doing the same nasty they did here at home. they just didn't get it on film, or let anyone catch them.

Even the army could not bring out these barbaric traits if they were not already in these people