Morbidly Funny
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Don't leave wounded enemies to die. Don't desecrate the dead. Don't cause unnecessary suffering. Don't steal things while searching private homes. And don't photograph detainees, especially when they're hooded. These mandates may seem like common sense, or at least common courtesy, but reports of U.S. troops killing civilians in Iraq have prompted the military to offer all Iraqi-based troops a refresher course on "the importance of professional military values." Along with the aforementioned values, the 38-slide presentation includes other tidbits, such as ones reminding troops that theft, war crimes and prisoner abuse are considered "acts inconsistent with common values." The presentation emphasizes troops should behave no differently in Iraq from the way they would in the United States. "Military personnel are professionals, and professionals do not change their value systems simply because they are in a foreign country," it states. Another slide says: "The soldier, be he friend or foe, is charged with the protection of the weak and unarmed. If he violates this sacred trust, he profanes his entire culture." The presentation cites the Geneva Convention governing the rules of war as the basis for the military's system of values. Drawing on the requirements set down by the convention, the training slide show says troops should remember:
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It's things like this that sort of go against Haas' urging that "human rights can be felt -- at our core we always think that 'People just don't do such things ---" We would think that yes, common sense would dictate that certain crimes are inexcusable, but still there exists the duality of human nature, it seems to me, the capability to commit acts of heinous dreadfulness alongside of acts of incredible selflessness.
But then there is also the charitable side to the heinous half, which wants to know what hellish conditions have brought out hellish actions (in the 'normal' people, not the naturally 'bad apples', so to speak)....