Repeated Tours in Bush’s Oil Wars Cause Stressed Out Soldiers to Abuse Innocents
Posted in H.L. News, Main Blog (All Posts) on May 5th, 2007 6:03 am by HL
Study Finds Lapses in Battlefield Ethics
S. Florida Sun Sentinel
Excerpt
WASHINGTON — In a survey of U.S. troops in combat in Iraq, less than half of Marines and a little more than half of Army soldiers said they would report a member of their unit for killing or wounding an innocent civilian.
More than 40 percent support the idea of torture in some cases, and 10 percent reported personally abusing Iraqi civilians, the Pentagon said Friday in what it called its first ethics study of troops at the war front. Units exposed to the most combat were chosen for the study, officials said.
“It is disappointing,” said analyst John Pike of the Globalsecurity.org think tank. “But anybody who is surprised by it doesn’t understand war. … This is about combat stress.”
The military has seen a number of high-profile incidents of alleged abuse in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the killings of 24 civilians by Marines, the rape and killing of a 14-year-old girl and the slaying of her family and the sexual humiliation of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison….
_Only 47 percent of the soldiers and 38 percent of Marines said noncombatants should be treated with dignity and respect.
_About a third of troops said they had insulted or cursed at civilians in their presence.
_About 10 percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating civilians or damaging property when it was not necessary. Mistreatment includes hitting or kicking a civilian.
HL’s Take
When soldiers are sent over there for 3 and 4 tours, then get there time extended, and seeing death all around them, of course they are going to start losing it. But, since the worst President ever insists in keeping the war going on forever, of course no one is going to sign up to go over there and fight for the lies. This leads to the soldiers that are over there abusing and killing innocent people, which makes the US look even worse to the rest of the world. Just one more way Bush is screwing it all up for everyone. When a soldier who has been over there way to long and finally snaps and kills an innocent civilian, you can blame that on Bush, the biggest mass murderer in modern times.
