|
Well the easy answer to that is "yes". One needs look no further than Lt. William Calley and the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Members of one company in the Army’s Americal division killed hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese women, children and elderly men with rifles and grenades.
The reason that I oppose war so vehemently is because it opens an opportunity for things like this to happen. Our government puts our sons in situations so bizarre that needless killing is bound to happen. I don’t say this as some ill-informed liberal with a “shock, gasp” outlook on life. I served in combat arms, although not in combat. My experience with tough decision-making came while I worked as a guard in a state prison. I know what it is like to have only a split second to plot a course of action in a violent situation. I know what it is like to be second guessed by people who have all the time in the world to figure out how I should have handled a violent felon intent on harming me.
We have demonized (and rightly so) the Germans of the Nazi generation. I think we need to remember that pre-war Germany was a society that in many way paralleled out own. The mindless nationalism, support for a spuriously elected leader, culture of military obedience don’t exactly mirror the modern US but there are similarities.
Let’s face it. Young men with rifles, bullets and a shoot to kill policy will make mistakes. Governments that play politics with something as serious as war will kill people who don’t deserve to die.
History is full of examples of governments that killed without moral justification. To think that the US is exempt from this pattern is naïve. To think that there doesn’t exist an officer unwilling to issue illegal orders is naïve. Our soldiers are allowed under the UCMJ to refuse illegal orders but they don’t receive adequate training in how to do so.
I see too much, “Support our commander in chief” and “Obey the orders of the officers appointed over me.” I don’t see enough personal responsibility.
|