Is there any evidence to suggest that US military personnel will be accused of (or self-report) widespread involvement in war crimes in the Middle East in the coming years? While “widespread” is subjective and the nature of the question is purely speculative, we do know from every major war in the 20th century that there were significant spikes in reported/alleged war crimes in the immediate post-conflict years.
The general consensus about Vietnam was that war atrocities (rape, torture and murder of clearly innocent children/civilians/villagers) committed at the hands of US servicemen were common (and if you must quibble, certainly not infrequent. If you have any doubt, I suggest you start with a requisite viewing of “Winter Soldier”, available on Netflix). My Lai turned out to only be the tip of the iceberg. Obviously we have far fewer troops overseas than we did in Vietnam, so absolute numbers would of course be much lower.
I presume that the following overly simplistic factors make it less likely these days that American servicemen brutalize innocent civilians:
- Greater intelligence sophistication, more nuanced understanding of the enemy
- Use of “Smart” weapons, less ordinance, no Agent Orange or chem. weapons used
- More embedded reporters, 24-hour news feed. Soldiers and officers much more aware of the devastating impact of bad press ( remember Abu Ghraib?)
- More specific and nuanced Rules of Engagement, more awareness of Geneva Conventions, much higher priority on minimizing civilian casualties
- Smaller amount of ground forces means more oversight, less likely that rogue divisions or individuals can get away with brutality
- Dare I say war is less inhumane now? Certainly less racist indoctrination and dehumanization of a whole people as compared to the subjugation of the Vietnamese.
Any other factors to add to this list?
CAVEAT: As a newcomer to TSD, I can’t help myself from being excited to start new threads, but I will take a break after this one!