Saturday, May 22, 2010

US Military Culture Is Deeply Flawed

By Linda S. Heard
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Apr 26, 2010, 00:16
Courtesy Of "The Online Journal"

No one should imagine that war is a garden of roses or that military personnel should behave like care workers. It may be an unpleasant reality but no matter how the profession is dressed up, soldiers are groomed to be efficient killing machines so as to protect their country and its interests abroad. But unless humankind is prepared to tolerate its “finest” descending into savagery; unless we the people are willing to accept that disregard for civilian casualties and cold blooded murder of wounded are acceptable, then red lines must be drawn.

A recently aired 38-minute military video that was decrypted by Wikileaks.org is abhorrent on three levels. Firstly, it illustrates the carelessness of US pilots flying Apache helicopters over Baghdad on July 12, 2007, who assumed a camera was an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) and fired upon two Reuters employees and others without any qualms. “Ha! Ha! I hit them,” said one gleefully. Voices could be heard saying: “Got a bunch of bodies layin‘ there”; “Yeah, we got one guy crawling around down there . . .” and “Oh yeah, look at all those dead b. . . . . . s.” The response was “Nice!”

Secondly, it shows the ruthlessness of those pilots who targeted a civilian vehicle containing two youngsters in the full knowledge that it had stopped to carry away the dead and injured. The driver turned out to be a Good Samaritan who was taking his children to private lessons when he chanced upon the carnage.

Thirdly, it illustrates the sheer callousness of American forces. When one of the pilots realises that youngsters were hit he shrugs off the crime saying: “It’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle.” The thing is, there was no battle. The men were just strolling around chatting and talking on mobile phones. And when they were taken down, one of the flyers was heard itching to finish off the wounded as they lay on the ground.

The Pentagon did everything it could to cover up this disgusting incident. It refused requests to release the video under the Freedom of Information Act and has been hassling Wikileaks, which calls itself “the intelligence agency of the people.” Mysteriously, Part II of the video has been expunged from YouTube. It can be viewed on other sites, but watch out for viruses!

Not An Isolated Incident

Curiously, Reuters chief David Schlesinger spiked a story written by one of the agency’s own deputy bureau chiefs that portrayed the killing as a potential war crime. It may be that Reuters has been leant on too, especially when one remembers that this isn’t the first time that Reuters journalists and cameramen have been targeted in Iraq. On April 8, 2003, a US tank fired at Baghdad’s Palestine Hotel -- a well-known billet for international reporters -- killing a Reuters cameraman and a Spanish cameraman working for Telecinco. Three Reuters staff members were injured during the same attack.

US authorities have been forced to admit the leaked video’s authenticity. But, rather than apologise or attempt to excuse this sickening display of man’s inhumanity to man as being the work of a few bad apples, the military has concluded that its personnel acted in accordance with the laws of armed conflict and its Rules of Engagement.

This is simply not true. Under those rules only persons committing hostile acts can be engaged, and then only until such time as “the individual is injured and no longer a threat.” It seems the Pentagon is determined never to admit wrongdoing. When NBC’s Kevin Sites filmed a Marine killing a comatose unarmed prisoner in a Fallujah mosque, he was treated like a traitorous pariah while the murderous Marine escaped court-martial.

As long as this kind of behaviour is condoned by the White House and the Pentagon, it undercuts any moral credibility the American military still retains. If the cold-blooded murder of wounded men and the targeting of children is considered acceptable under rules of engagement then this is a shameful admission which breaches the Geneva Conventions. No wonder so many civilians have died at the hands of the US Army and Air Force in Iraq and Afghanistan! No wonder anti-American feeling in those countries is rife!

A culture that encourages communal prayer before battle and then pats its soldiers on the back for treating human beings like cockroaches to be exterminated is damaging to the victim and perpetrator alike. There is something fundamentally wrong when one-third of America’s Iraq/Afghanistan veterans return home with mental health problems and as many as 46 percent contemplate suicide. Others are prone to violent outbreaks; a few have turned their guns on their wives and girlfriends. Many are addicted to prescription opiates or stimulants routinely provided by the military to ease pain or to keep them alert during combat.

The realisation may one day hit those pilots that they weren’t playing video games after all. Away from the gung ho, testosterone-charged environment, those with a conscience will be forced to look their wives and children in the eye while hoping their own do not reflect the torment of the guilt that must weigh heavily on the souls of so many.

Linda S. Heard is a British specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She welcomes feedback and can be contacted by email at heardonthegrapevines@yahoo.co.uk.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal

No comments: