We’re up to about six incidents of Soldiers and Marines being accused of murdering Iraqis, Haditha and the alleged rape of the 14 year old Iraqi girl being the two getting the most press.
I’m pretty impressed by how the Army has jumped on some of the more recent cases, especially the rape allegations. (Not saying the Marines didn’t, just haven’t been following that story closely enough to know.) I know these investigations are irritating certain folks who are trying to support the troops or the war. The arguments seem to be, don’t rush to judgment because soldiers must make life and death decisions in the heat of combat and sometimes they err, and, it’s a war for crying out loud, people get killed, what do you expect.
There's more on the flip.
Regarding the former, I fully agree that the situations merit full investigation before action. I also believe that the commanders on the ground have plenty of experience, intelligence and resources to do just that. If a commander recommends an investigation, I’d tend to trust that judgment. Complaining about the investigation thinking you’re supporting the soldiers is misplaced. Soldiers were accused, soldiers made the decision to investigate, soldiers are investigating, soldiers will decide. If you support only the accused, you are criticizing the commanders and investigators.
I also believe that we support our soldiers by ensuring that we purge the miscreants and mutants out of the ranks. These types do manage to get in, and they cause morale problems and put fellow soldiers in bad situations. In order to get them out, you need facts to support the decision, and the facts come from investigations.
The other main argument, that it’s a war and shit happens, is a bit more complex. First, it’s not really a war, it’s a police action and military rules don’t apply. Our soldiers would capture insurgents, arrest them, and as part of the arrest would gather evidence. They’d photograph the scene, and often take video. They’d take swabs from the suspect’s hands to establish the presence of gunpowder. They question the suspect on the spot and again later. Once that was put together, decisions were made. Initially one of the intel guys would decide whether enough evidence existed to hold the suspect. If so, that decision got made again two or three times up the chain until finally the suspect was turned over to the Iraqi police or Army, depending.
It was very common for our soldiers to root out and capture a suspect only to have him released within a day or two Our soldiers called this the “catch and release program,” and they complained bitterly about it. Some of them related a story to me about being taunted by a guy they’d rounded up who’d gotten released for lack of evidence.
Second, even in war commanders must maintain good order and discipline. If they don’t chaos ensues. If commanders don’t find and punish soldiers who stray from the rules, soon all soldiers will be making their own rules. Finding, investigating and in the appropriate case punishing soldiers who commit crimes is an essential part of maintaining discipline and control.
2 comments:
I've been thinking about the rape/murder case lately, because it's getting a lot of weird reactions from people. There's an Alternet article that a bunch of normally resonable people are going loony over that says that this shows that Americans are employing rape as a tactic of war in Iraq. I mean, excuse me? The fact that the guy has a major personality disorder, and the way that the event supposedly took place, make me think that he's pretty much your garden-variety psycho and not some kind of undercover rape-and-killbot set loose on the people of Iraq by the American government. If the event is symptomatic of any kind of problematic behavior on the part of the US military, I would think it would be more about screening applicants than encouraging soldiers to rape and kill civilians.
Any large organization will have whackos, and sometimes the whackos will do something outrageous. Plus, it's kind of stressful being in the Army in Iraq, and that can put borderline whackos over the top. I think that screening and standards have slipped due to the high demand for enlistments.
Rape as a policy? Believe me, if anyone ever ordered that it would be instantly reported and exposed. The Army may have some mutants, but its got lots of good people and they wouldn't stand for rape as policy.
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