JUNE 4,2019:NAVY SEAL'S ALLEGED WAR CRIMES A PRODUCT OF US "WAR CULTURE"/THE WORLD IS AT THE CROSSROADS  

 On June 4 A military judge has removed the lead prosecutor in a high-profile case
of a decorated Navy SEAL accused of war crimes in Iraq one week before the case was
to go to trial.The atrocities allegedly committed by Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher are
the product of a nation fighting unjust wars and a society steeped in "war culture",
  Gallagher, a highly decorated platoon chief,is currently sitting in pretrial 
detention at a naval base in San Diego.He is accused of committing multiple 
atrocities,including murder,in Iraq.
   Gallagher's story was recently thrust into the spotlight after a group of SEAL 
commandos who tried to report Gallagher's behavior claimed they were repeatedly 
told by higher-ups to "stop talking about it."
   Jesse Ventura, a former member of a Navy Underwater Demolition Team during the
Vietnam war,said that his fellow SEALs' decision to try and turn Gallagher in was 
an honorable one.
  Gallagher faces more than a dozen charges,including premeditated murder and 
attempted murder.His alleged crimes include indiscriminately raking civilian 
neighborhoods with machine-gun fire,opening fire on civilians without provocation 
and summarily executing a captured,teenage Islamic State (IS,formerly ISIS/ISIL) 
fighter who was undergoing medical treatment by US medics,by stabbing him 
repeatedly with a custom-made knife and hatchet.
   Many were not surprised that Gallagher ended up in the military, considering the
armed forces is "the perfect place for a sociopath to go."

  California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter,defending a Navy SEAL accused of war 
crimes in Iraq,said his own unit "killed probably hundreds of civilians," 
unintentionally, during his 2004 tour as a Marine field artillery officer in 
Fallujah, Iraq.
  "I was an artillery officer, and we fired hundreds of rounds into Fallujah, 
killed probably hundreds of civilians, if not scores, if not hundreds of civilians,"  
Hunter said. "Probably killed women and children,if there were any left in the city
when we invaded.So do I get judged too?"
  Ordinarily, it is not a crime to inflict accidental casualties while firing at 
enemy positions.Estimates of the number of civilians killed during and after the 
invasion of Iraq vary widely but are generally put in the low six figures.
    Gallagher faces a premeditated-murder charge for the stabbing death in 2017 of 
a teenage ISIS fighter who was brought in for medical treatment. Gallagher 
allegedly posed for a picture with the prisoner's body. "I frankly don't care if he
was killed,I just don't care," Hunter said about the ISIS fighter. He added:"Even 
if everything that the prosecutors say is true in this case,then,you know,Eddie 
Gallagher should still be given a break,I think."

  In response to Hunter's comments,a Marine spokesman, Maj. Brian Block, said in a 
statement,"Marines are required to comply with the law of war during all military 
operations,however characterized. If mistreatment of the dead were committed 
intentionally,it could be considered a violation of the law of war. 
U.S. service members have been charged and punished under the Uniform Code of 
Military Justice [UCMJ] for posing for pictures with human casualties. 
Generally,the statute of limit