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Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
My perspective on this is informed by the fact that I have students in my classes who are the same age as these kids--and I've had 3 students who were Iraq veterans, if you can believe it.
My impression of them? They're emotionally a bit raw, have gone through something I can't begin to understand--but they're essentially just kids. The people we're sending over there to do this job (whether you approve of the job or not) are 18-20 year olds whose only training in making moral choices is essentially "do what you're told." I don't know why it should be a surprise that when they're confronted with difficult situations in which they have to make a moral choice, sometimes they make the wrong choice, even if it seems obvious to us.
I'm not saying that any of this justifies what happened. I'm just saying that I feel for the soldiers over there who are in situations each day where they have to make a distinction between a person they have to help and a person they have to kill. The way I see it, that HAS to mess with your mind, especially if you don't have the emotional maturity to handle it. Again, not justifying anything--just pointing out that our position of comfort and safety can make it a little too easy to judge.
I suspect that the "more" to the story Azure is referring to may take the form of something like extreme stress, or sleep deprivation, or a very confusing situation. In addition to investigating the actions of the soldiers, we should be asking questions about who put them in this situation.
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Thank you very much. Those Marines didn't kill innocent civilians because they wanted too. Unless we have served in the conditions they are currently in, there is no way we can understand what they go through.
I'm not declaring them innocent either, but I just find it ridiculous that people would think these Marines would kill somebody in cold blood, while "knowing" it was innocent civilians they were shooting at.