Why are US military courts so much more lenient than civilian ones?

[sandyRoe]

This murderer might be out in less than 10 years.

http://www.guardian.c...alvin-gibbs-convicted

[jno]

they take killing for granted, they're more concerned with etiquette. Collecting teeth is supposed to be left to regimental dentists.

[ummmm]

They are trained to kill. Some seem to be able to detach themselves completely.

[jake-the-peg]

If you give people power like that and the belief that there is no probability of detection or retribution you get some pretty apalling behaviour.

If you look at the Stanford Prison Guards experiment
http://en.wikipedia.o...ord_prison_experiment

You can see this

You can make the defense that this psychological effect is well known and that the failure to adequately insure that it didn't come into play was a major failing of the US army and mitigates the severity of the offense.

I'm not suggesting that such a defense is valid - merely that it's one possible line of mitigation.

I'm sure a more likely one is that the "sevice of their country" will be held as counterbalancing factor

There have been a number of such events

http://en.wikipedia.o...sacres_in_Afghanistan