"Morals in A Combat Zone"

[MdB]

Here's another reading suggestion: Tiger Force : A True Story of Men and War

This is a case study of why such acts happen. Bottom line reason is a complete leadership breakdown.

If you want to hear the authors about the book, go to the Pritzker Military Library website. If you want to browse the podcast archives, you have to register, but again it's free. Very good US Military current issues and historical events source.

 

[Wolfmann]

Abu Graib was blown out of proportion because of a lack of fundamental understanding of the processes of war by the general public. Sure it's a pity for innocent men to be subjected to torturous activities, personal humiliation, and conduct seen as generally inhumane and barbaric - but it's another thing to put soldiers into a situation that creates high stress, isolation, and into a brand new environment that seems to present a faceless, unconfirmed enemy and expect them to NOT adjust their values, and mirror the morals that they are presented with daily. That was the real crime of Abu Graib...and now Haditha.

Haditha...same crap, different pile. And it's funny to see the reaction of the COC is pretty much universal across most Western armies...senior officers scrambling to cover their asses and sacrifice the lambs they sent to slaughter without relief from the pressures of their environment or reinforcement of the values that may become perverted because of their lack of relief from their environment.

Well...out of all this, I doubt the Marine Corps will be disbanded because of the actions of a few, from the knee jerk reaction of [weak] politicians.

 

[TMM]

I think the problem is the cover up. This happened in November, and was reported in Arab news the next day.

Being I leftie I'm a big fan of the cover up but I heard about Haditha a while back. If one is only getting news from 60 second sound bites and 180 second "in depth features" then a lot of info will be missed.

 

[Red 6]

I think the Haditha incident, Abu Ghraib, etc, are symptoms of the pervasive 24 hour news cycle. The media incessantly needs to justify itself. All the highly paid "embedded reporters" running around Iraq need something to do. It's ridiculous that a rifle squad has a cameraman from CNN following their every move in combat. It gives all the Walter Mittys out there a vicarious thrill and turns every "expert" in a Monday morning quarterback. Just the other day, I heard Barbara Starr (CNN's Pentagon reporter) speculating on Zarqawi's death. She was dropping the big hint that he lived for "an extended" period before finally dying. The unspoken gist was that maybe our troops executed him or let him bleed out. I thought, "What difference does it make?"

For the record, I'm a democrat who campaigned for John Kerry in the last election. I didn't support the war in Iraq to start with but feel that we can't just cut and run now.