Catholic Sensibility

Abuse blame, this way or that I'd like to offer a few clarifications on my thoughts behind abuse and murder at the Iraqi prisons. I didn't intend to imply modern military culture is solely to blame instead of civilian depravity, as David Morrison suggested in his blog. On the contrary, civilian escapades such as lynch mobs cast an eerie shadow on wrongdoing in Iraq. It also shows that perhaps homosexual outing is not at all the root problem for prisoner abuse. It shows that recent immorality in Western pop culture might have some company. I object to Mr Morrison's approach, and that of others who are so ready to find a single scapegoat and stick with it. From what veterans have told me and from what I've experienced and read, I think I can lay out some principles I see at play here: - Violence in the media (film, tv, sport, and video) reinforces a numbness to actual suffering in others. Without a human connection to suffering, the adversary becomes a receptacle for information extraction or an object of personal anger. I can see why every prison, military and civilian, has incidences of abuse. - Military culture has strong aspects of honor and discipline. But it also contains violence and competition, and in wartime, the extremes of these. It is impossible for a good people to simply shut off their switch of compassion when it comes time to fight and kill. - In this light, Just War is not simply a loophole to justify a battle. It is a moral warning for those engaging in warfare. I suspect a disputed case such as Iraq War II does not barely and entirely fall on one side of the fence or another. Some soldiers enter this war confident in their own participation as a good thing. I would not presume to dispute that. However, their superiors and this administration may not have motives and actions as clean. And it is more than possible that a good person can be corrupted by exposure to evil, be it the evil of the adversary or the sins of individuals of one's own side. Somewhere yesterday, one commenter suggested "original sin" was to blame. But "the devil made me do it" philosophy just doesn't work for a nation that deserves answers, victims that deserve contrition and restitution, and soldiers far from home who are in a bit more danger today because of what some of their comrades did. The US remains in grave danger, but not foremost from a terrorist attack. While this struggle has brought out the best in many Americans, it has also revealed something of our seamy underbelly. There's lots of blame to go around, and I'm inclined to listen best to the person with the longest list.