Why does this happen?

[Amelia]

Five GIs investigated over killing of Iraqi family

Woman was allegedly raped before she and her family were killed

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13630952/

[:"blue"]Aren't the psych tests given during induction designed to weed out the more violent and criminal types? Or is our armed services taking anyone and everyone now? How much of this occured in past armed conflicts? [/]

[Gregory Matthews]

Re: "Aren't the psych tests given during induction designed to weed out the more violent and criminal types?"

No.

[cricket]

Psychiactric exams aren't the appropriate tests. Colonoscopic and endoscopic exams are needed to sort out the upper GIs from the lower ones.

<img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/tomato.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/run.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/adventist/images/graemlins/AAdoh.gif" alt="" />

[Amelia]

Oh Chrys........[]http://www.smiliegenerator.de/s30/smilies-23651.png[/]

[cricket]

{Well, our Chief Tongue-In-Cheek Correspondent is away! What can I say?}

[bevin]

1. It ain't proven yet

2. Unfortunately dehumanizing the enemy is a standard part of military psychology. You don't kill people - you kill gooks, krauts, skinnies, slant-eyes, nazis.

3. The whole IED, guerilla warfare, ambush-and-melt-away fighting is very frustrating to our troops. They see their buddies getting killed and maimed by the very people that they were told they were there to help - and they start to wonder why those people aren't grateful, then they start to dehumanize them, then they start to look for vengence

4. And there are 130,000 of them - and it only takes a very small fraction to get pushed over the edge...

5. The insurgents know this, and in part are relying on it. They have used it against us. It is clear that, to a large extent, we have lost the hearts-and-minds campaign in Iraq.

Think about this. We have killed over 100,000 Iraqi's in the course of the two wars. >10,000 in this one. Each of them has a family, and those family members is now unlikely to have strong emotional commitment to our well-being.

Every time we do something like the above - and often no where near as bad, but still very insulting to family honor - we make more of the population dislike us.

This was all well understood before the invasion, by many people, but not by the Bush administration members with their agendas.

/Bevin

[Dr. Shane]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">Quote:</font><hr />

How much of this occured in past armed conflicts?

<hr /></blockquote><font class="post">

Vietnaum was the first war where the media was given wide-spread ability to report on the atrocities. Many members of the media witnessed such atrocities during WW2 but were not allowed to report them.

I agree with almost all of what Bevin has written accept for the cheap shot at the President.

[Amelia]

I know that the investigation is just starting. What I dont understand is how a persons mind can get so warped as to think these types of atrocities are justified.

[Dr. Shane]

I think the points 1 - 5 that Bevin made explain it and if I were to offer my thoughts I would only be repeating what he has posted.

[olger]

Bad seeds are bad seeds. They show up everywhere--fire departments, the police, and the military. The same thing happened in Kosovo, a SSG raped a young girl (under 10) several times, then finally killed her.

It's bad when truly evil people like that make it into the military, the confusion and stress of combat, and natural tendency of soldiers to cover for each other makes it easy for these predators to get away with this stuff. It's all the worse when two or more of these individuals "find" each other in the military, there is no end to the damage they can do.

Really, if you step back and think about it, it's a real testimony to the quality of our military and it's leadership that this is so rare when compared to the rate of murder/rape in the general population and especially the military of other countries. There were military units in Kosovo, Bosnia, Macedonia, etc from other countries under the UN umbrella that were regularly taking protection bribes from local criminals, running child prostitute rings, engaging in extortion, all kinds of things.

The answer is Jesus Christ in the heart,

gcw