The US Army has responded to the allegations of systematic executions of civilians by Marines in Haditha by ordering all soldiers to take extra training on "moral and ethical standards". It's good that they're doing it, but at the same time I can't help but feel that they're a little late. Haditha is not an isolated incident; US soldiers have displayed a callous disregard for the lives of Iraqi civilians since day one, resulting in thousands of dead. And they wait until now to tell them that they should only shoot people who have guns?
One wonders how differently things would have turned out if the US had taken a strong line on protecting the lives of Iraqi civilians from the beginning, rather than emphasising "force protection" and giving their soldiers a free licence to murder the very people who they were supposed to be "saving". Sadly, we'll never know.
I think a more serious response like a review of who they send into certain sorts of situations. Or beef up a investigations authority.
ReplyDeleteFundimentally, as it stands, the US govt cannot trust it's army not to undermine it's objectives by shoting civilians. aside from the justice issues - they are just wasting money and resources.
Neil: recently, yes. But in the early days, their rules of engagement stressed "force protection" and allowed US troops to shoot to kill whenever they felt threatened (i.e. whenever approached by an Iraqi). That may have changed recently, but the mindset it established has survived.
ReplyDeleteAs for fixing it, proper discipline does work. While a lot of the shine has come off the British part of the occupation recently, they've still managed to avoid the sort of trigger-happy behaviour that characterises US troops. And they do it by making sure their troops know damn well that they are only allowed to use their weapons when someone is actually pointing a gun at them, and that they will be prosecuted (in civilian court, even) if they fail to abide by the rules. And this discipline shows in the body-count; we're not seeing anything like these sorts of stories from the British sector.
The problem is that it takes more than a quick refresher course to instill this discipline. And the training needs to be backed up by a firm commitment to punish and prosecute those who go against it. And unfortunately, the US military seems constitutionally incapable of doing that.