From the AP, via Military.com, pointed out by Fuzzybear...
Soldier says he randomly shot at Iraqis
The Associated Press
Posted : Monday Jan 14, 2008 13:40:18 EST
FORT CARSON, Colo. — The Army is investigating possible war crimes after a Fort Carson soldier facing first-degree murder charges in the slayings of two Iraq war veterans told investigators he and another soldier randomly fired at Iraqi civilians.
She wondered why she hadn't seen anything about it on the milblogs:
It's such an incomprehensible mess that I can't really sort it out, but have you heard anything about this?I was initially surprised that I hadn't see it mentioned on the milblogs... Sounds kind of crazy, though. I mean, they'd have to have their LT and/or SGTs in on it to have gotten away with it in-country. And hey, the guy's charged with two murders; he's not a reliable witness at this point. Still, almost believable if he's enough of a human scum to be killing his fellow soldiers.
My first thoughts were:
Truth - first I've heard of it. And it sounds plausible.
War brings out both the best and the worst in people.
The difference is, the soldiers just don't talk about it much, and media was not ubiquitous.
It would be instructive to look through the courts-martial records of the combat divisions of WWII.
My father tells stories about the NCOIC he had while serving with the UN Partisan Forces Korea during the Korean War - and man with a genius for killing, who didn't want the war to end... because during the war, it was legal for him to kill. He may have come back to the US and led a productive life, and never indulged his taste for killing again, who knows?
Then Fuzzy responded in a way that shows she was on my wavelength yesterday:
I'm reminded again of Bill's brilliant line (delivered in the context of Thompson/My Lai) about war wearing off peoples' finish and leaving nothing but their core--some are base metal, others are pure gold. This guy sounds like the former... if he ever had any "finish" at all (it's hard to follow the jumbled story, but between the lines I think I'm seeing gang activity in the murder of his two fellow soldiers on-base).
So I went looking for what Bill actually said:
War takes a rasp to the veneer of civilization which covers a man and scrapes until the solid metal which forms his soul is exposed. Most soldiers are iron or steel, a few--very few--are base metal.And some are solid gold. They adhere to their values through the absolute worst that gets thrown their way and their souls survive untarnished...
I'm guessing these guys didn't bring much in the way of good values to the fight in the first place. At least in the lead guy's case - slag was at his core.
We're shocked (well, those who've never been exposed to it are shocked) that this sort of thing happens. Truth is - it's happened in every war we've ever fought. But the soldiers don't talk about it to outsiders (because they know what kind of reaction it's going to provoke) and there wasn't a ubiquity of media... and where there were media who really lived with the troops, they didn't talk about it much, either. Because they understood what they were seeing, and knew the spring from which it welled.
That said - ask anyone who lived under the German jackboot during WWII, or the suffered under the hands of the Japanese, Soviets, North Koreans, and any of the lesser mobs that oft-times masquerade as Third World Armies (with shining exceptions, to be sure) and ask them who they'd rather have rolling through their villages and cities (at least after the bombing was done) - and you'll generally find they'd rather it be us than most others.
Of course, I'm sure that almost to a person, they'd just as soon *no one* roll through their villages locked and loaded. And most of us would rather just roll through on exercises, and stop for a beer and a brat' at the bierstube anyway.
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