Understanding Why They Raped—AmericanChronicle.com
I'm really not sure what to say about this, except "wow!"
There are some situations in life where it is appropriate to do bad things. Anyone might some day find himself in spot where he must kill another person in order to survive. Soldiers in Iraq run into this type of situation regularly.
Some soldiers fight when they must to defend themselves and/or others. They kill people, but it is justified because it is necessary. A small number of soldiers have been accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in noncombat situations. This kind of killing is not justified and is no different from any common murder, although in some instances it may be found that the soldiers involved were under excessive stress, absolving them of legal responsibility and explaining logically what went wrong and how.
But in the case of a soldier who raped a 14-year old Iraqi girl, afterward killing the girl and her family, there is no excuse at all. Strangely enough, Suki Falconberg, the writer of the article linked above, feels otherwise. She claims that the soldiers' stress level should earn them a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, even when it comes to sexually assaulting and murdering children. (I don't imagine Ms. Falconberg has any daughters.)
The problem with viewing the soldiers' actions through the prism of "War is hell" is that the real brutes, thugs, and sex criminals look just as fuzzy as the panicked soldier who lost control for a few moments and did things he would not ordinarily do. If the soldier who raped that young girl were to be unleashed on the non-war zone streets of America, free from the terror of being in mortal peril every day, he would rape again anyway, and he might even murder again. Sexually assaulting and murdering people is not a recognized human reaction to stress, except in the homicidally psychotic. If he would do it in Iraq, he would do it in Chicago or L.A. or New York.
