Five US soldiers have been charged with serious crimes in Iraq. Murder and Rape are the two serious ones. The act happened in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, back in March of this year. You can search up the particulars at any reputable news source.
The US Military is going about charging and investigating the five with as much transparency as the US Military can scrape up. They know they have to: Iraq is watching the whole thing very closely. I will not excuse the actions of the soldiers, except to say that when you brutalize humans, expect humans to act in a brutal manner.
Which is why the charges are serious: They speak to how troops are managed in Iraq and what steps the US Military have taken to ensure that normal humans don’t cross that imaginary line from disciplined soldier to murderer.
Like the rest of the planet, there is a percentage of disturbed people in the military, just as there is a percentage who drink too much, or enjoy needlepoint, or who are gay. These tend to be fixed percentages. With the exception of those who like Rickie Lee Jones or Juice Newton, it is in the realm of normal for any large group.
The problem is intrinsic. Soldiers are given access to weapons and the power to project their will, within certain limits, with the permission of the government. Fortunately the military 99 times out of 100, finds the unwell early in the process and keeps them away from the weapons. Unwell people will slip through, because the system is run by humans and is imperfect.
However, the pressure to get and keep soldiers is ever-increasing. One suggestion is that the US Military in the lower ranks, is made up of kids, right out of high school who have no hope for a job or college education. This means small-town kids from poor towns, or urban kids with no alternatives. The military has always been the last refuge of the poor.
A few years ago the US Navy had to rewrite all their manuals, down to a Grade 6 level of reading comprehension. Recruits didn’t have the educational skills to read the manuals to understand how to operate or troubleshoot things like an aircraft catapult, or the steering gear on a ship. But the pressure to recruit anything with a pulse didn’t go away. This puts more pressure on the system to overlook those who are just a little unwell, to keep the warm body in the service and hope that they don’t cross the line.
I’m hoping the atrocities in Mahmoudiya are the work of a couple of unwell people who slipped through the cracks. I also hope the US Military keeps the whole process transparent, so the population in Iraq can see that the process, although slow, will work to bring justice. The penalties might not be what some cultures would find acceptable, but as long as justice is seen to be done, then it will be accepted.
There is an axiom of the military: Lead by Example. Here’s a chance for the US Military to do exactly that.
RoadDave 