Comments on: Why this prosecution had to happen http://www.bloggernews.net/1218 High-quality English language analysis and editorial writing on the news. Sun, 27 May 2012 07:05:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: whymrhymer http://www.bloggernews.net/1218#comment-25 whymrhymer Sun, 08 Oct 2006 07:54:47 +0000 http://www.bloggernews.net/1218#comment-25 You are basicly right of course, as a nation our policy is to "do it right" when we are at war, but there have been atrocities, like those you mention, commited in EVERY war. In the heat of battle, individual soldiers and, at times, entire companies get so frustrated and battle weary, especially when fighting an enemy that has chosen to blend in with ordinary non-combatants, that they loose focus and commit the kind of atrocities that we are hearing about in the Middle-East. It's a fact of life that won't change until human nature changes (maybe in another two or three thousand years). You are also right that this latest case must be tried and guilt or innocence must be determined (and THEN prosecuted if guilty) -- not so much for what they may have done, that was a form of temporary insanity, but as an object lesson for the other troops and as a statement to the world that we can't and won't condone the murder of civilians. You are basicly right of course, as a nation our policy is to “do it right” when we are at war, but there have been atrocities, like those you mention, commited in EVERY war. In the heat of battle, individual soldiers and, at times, entire companies get so frustrated and battle weary, especially when fighting an enemy that has chosen to blend in with ordinary non-combatants, that they loose focus and commit the kind of atrocities that we are hearing about in the Middle-East. It’s a fact of life that won’t change until human nature changes (maybe in another two or three thousand years).

You are also right that this latest case must be tried and guilt or innocence must be determined (and THEN prosecuted if guilty) — not so much for what they may have done, that was a form of temporary insanity, but as an object lesson for the other troops and as a statement to the world that we can’t and won’t condone the murder of civilians.

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