What War Makes

I was reading this article on CNN about former U.S. soldier Steven Green. The article is titled, Defense: Military missed soldier’s symptoms before rape, killings. I don’t know if you all have been following Steven Green’s story at home — I haven’t. I only heard about his case a couple of days ago in an article about a possible death penalty sentence for war crimes on  U.S. soldier.

According to the articles I’ve read, Green executed a pre-meditated attack on a specific Iraqi family with fellow soldiers, and proceeded to rape the families’ 14-year-old daughter and murder the remaining members of the family. Not surprisingly, Green was posted in “an area known as the “Triangle of Death,” one of the bloodiest areas of the Sunni-led insurgency.”  Despite trips to the military psychologist, who believed Green and other  members of his troop were in a dangerous mental state, Green was returned to duty several times. Why? “…it was important for soldiers to return to duty, not only to keep up troop numbers, but also because “soldiers evacuated prematurely have a hard time fitting in.” Steven Green was certainly fitting in; making friends, making plans, making mistakes that have placed him and his fellow soldiers on trial.

This is what war makes: situations in which the number of troops stationed at checkpoints is more important than the safety of the civilian population, or for that matter, the psychological and physical safety of his fellow soldiers. Despite complete acknowledgment that this soldier and others were in no state to be carrying weapons among a population that they deeply resent, they were stationed in a position which made everyone involved most vulnerable.

There are many who believe that American military presence in places around the world is ‘keeping peace’ or seeing to the ‘establishment of democracy.’ But the murder of an innocent family at the hands of highly disturbed soldiers is the opposite of peace in every definition of the word. What good is democracy when the supposed ‘city on a hill’ is forcing its soldiers into an environment that eats away their mental capacity to separate right from wrong?

Perhaps Steven Green would have had the mentality to commit these crimes before he ever entered the military. Perhaps he was simply with the wrong group of people, in the wrong situation, which gave him ample opportunity to commit a heinous crime. But, all that means is that we are so desperate to supply bodies to this war that we are willing to overlook the personality traits which compromise the safety of those we are supposedly trying to protect.

Steven Green is one case, possibly the first American soldier to be sentenced to death for war crimes. Another death to add to the pile of bodies this war has made.

But is war itself not the crime? Who should be punished for that?

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him? – Blaise Pascal

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations. – David Friedman