….Iraq murders reveal the warping power of conformity and dehumanization.
by Rosa Brooks, who is a professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, is an interesting look into the issue of Americans being “good people”.
She begins
Are Americans good people?
After Vietnam — after My Lai, after the free-fire zones — many Americans were no longer sure.
After Haditha, the same question is again beginning to haunt us. We’re supposed to be a virtuous nation; our troops are supposed to be the good guys. If it turns out that Marines murdered 24 civilians, including children and infants, how could that have happened?
She addresses the “bad apple theory” and provides a look at these “key factors” leading to good people doing terrible things, substantiated by examples in far past and recent history:
Brooks concludes her piece with these thoughts:
Our troops were sent to fight an unnecessary war, without adequate resources or training for the challenges they faced. At the same time, senior members of the administration made clear their disdain for the Geneva Convention’s rules on war and for the principles and traditions of the military. Belated and halfhearted investigations into earlier abuses sent the message that brutality would be winked at — unless the media noticed, in which case a few bad apples would be ceremoniously ejected from the barrel, while higher-ups would go unpunished.
If we’re talking about apples, we should also keep another old proverb in mind: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 