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Originally posted by Shape Shifter
I agree with you to an extent. War creates an environment where certain actions by soldiers, such as looting, rape, and abuse of prisoners, are almost guaranteed to happen absent strong, organized, and effective leadership determined to prevent it from happening. As gatti noted, these actions are no longer shocking isolated incidents; they're widespread.
That they're so widespread leads me to 3 conclusions: (1) the military leadership actively supported the abuse of Iraqi prisoners; (2) the brass did not actively encourage torture, but turned a blind eye to the situation and let the sheiks fall where they may, because war sucks; or (3) the military leadership is completely incompetent.
I don't know which of the 3 it is, but all 3 readily explain the military's unjustifiable stonewalling on this issue. Whether or not you agree with the war in Iraq, our treatment of prisoners is completely inexcusable and will reflect poorly on our nation as a whole. Something stinks here. I would hope that this is enough of a nonpartisan issue that Rs and Ds could work together to get to the bottom of this, but my lack of cynicism has left me disappointed before.
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I had a law school professor who was in the Army in WWII. He was in a tank in Europe from D-Day to VE Day.
He told us a story about how, as his unit was pulling out of a town, scores of German soldiers surrendered to him. He was packing up their weapons when he saw a group of French soldiers leading a few Germans into the town. He heard a few shots, and the French soldiers came back alone. He looked at them, and the French officer looked back at him and said "S.S." and he pointed at the prisoners my prof had.
He said that he was sorely tempted to leave them to the French, but decided not to. He said that he was still unsure at the time of our discussion on the Rule in Shelley's Case ("what does this have to do with real property, Mr. Bob? Nothing! Now, then the Frog cocked his machine pistol and ...) about whether he did the right thing or not.
Battlefield incidents are one thing. Torture (fine, "mistreatment") of prisoners is another.
