[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 86 (Wednesday, June 28, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1308-E1309]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            ON THE ETHICS OF WAR: NON-COMBATANT INVOLVEMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 28, 2006

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce an article by Alex 
Vernon, a professor of American Studies in Hendrix College and a former 
member of the U.S. Armed Forces. The article titled The Road From My 
Lai, published in the op-ed section of the June 23, 2006 edition of the 
New York Times, drew parallels between the massacre at My Lai during 
Vietnam and the alleged atrocities at Haditha and Hamdania.
  A veteran of the first Gulf War, Mr. Vernon has firsthand experience 
of the atrocities the soldiers can be driven to commit in times of war. 
He is not making excuses for our forces in Iraq and neither do I. My 
Lai was a terrible tragedy and the Army's attempt of cover-up, abetted 
by the Nixon administration, was foiled by the efforts of Ronald 
Ridenhour, Congressman Morris Udall and journalist Seymour Hersh. We do 
not want to see a repeat of the My Lai cover-up again.
  Sitting here on the Capitol, while we are deciding to continue the 
occupation in Iraq, our National Guard and Reserve troops are being 
forced to serve their third or even fourth tour of duty. The heightened 
tension of war and frustration at the efforts of certain groups of 
Iraqis to resist American occupation may have driven our troops to 
commit atrocities that they would never have otherwise committed. As 
Mr. Vernon stated in the article, the dull and boring hour-long 
instructions on ethics does nothing to change the situation. ``Who 
needs to be told not to run a bayonet through a baby?''
  Unfortunately regardless of the results of official enquiries and 
court-martial into the incidents of Haditha and Hamdania, the damage 
has been done. The verdict is already in; and it is not in the U.S.'s 
favor. While General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, 
assures us that 99.9 percent of our servicemen and women are behaving 
humanely, the majority of the Iraqis confess no surprise at learning 
about the war crimes of the U.S. soldiers.
  Mr. Speaker, our armed forces should remember novelist William 
Eastlake's remarks on My Lai. You cannot transfer the blame on your 
superior officer; use your own judgment.
  And we, the legislators of the nation should keep in mind that in 
prolonging this needless war, we are amplifying the physical and 
psychological strains on our soldiers, thereby making room for more 
Hadithas and Hamdanias.

                          The Road From My Lai

                            (By Alex Vernon)

       When I went to war as a junior officer in Iraq 15 years 
     ago, we faced a far different enemy for far less time than 
     today's troops are dealing with--four days back then, into 
     our fourth year now. Yet in those first weeks in the desert 
     before Desert Storm, back when we fully expected Iraq's 
     several armored divisions to drive into Saudi Arabia and 
     crush the two divisions we had on the ground, two soldiers 
     under my command digging a fighting position lost their 
     heads. One pulled a knife on the other. Fortunately, other 
     soldiers pulled them apart.
       It's impossible to imagine the frustration and stress on 
     American soldiers in Iraq today--impossible, or maybe it's 
     simply not something we willingly work to imagine. Then the 
     news breaks. My first thought on hearing about the alleged 
     atrocities at Haditha--and of the announcement this week that 
     murder charges are being brought against eight American 
     servicemen for killing an Iraqi civilian at Hamdania in 
     April--was ``Duh.'' If we didn't know this day was coming, we 
     were fools.
       I would like to ask those troops accused of war crimes in 
     Iraq what they know about My Lai 4, the site of the most 
     famous American atrocity in Vietnam. In the late 1990's, I 
     did a brief stint in the Army Reserve commanding a company 
     whose job was supporting active-duty basic training units. I 
     recall no mention of My Lai in our classroom instruction.
       These days, when I teach a college course on American war 
     literature, My Lai inevitably comes up. Inevitably, a fair 
     number of students raise their hands to be reminded, possibly 
     even introduced, to that dark day in 1968. These young men 
     and women attend a prestigious liberal arts college and 
     probably won't find themselves in places like Haditha or 
     Hamdania. But they should be reasonably expected to know more 
     about American history than their peers whom we do send with 
     guns to Haditha and Hamdania.
       I am slightly encouraged by our military's new commitment, 
     announced in the wake of the Haditha reports, to ensure that 
     coalition forces in Iraq receive training in ethics and 
     values. But the cynic in me groans. Not another dull, 
     forgettable one-hour block of instruction on ethics like I 
     endured in my years of officer training. Who needs to be told 
     not to run a bayonet through a baby?
       According to Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint 
     Chiefs, such training ``should provide comfort to those 
     looking to see if we are a nation that stands on the values 
     we hold dear.'' With all due respect to the general, does he 
     really think that such training will appease those who 
     believe the Americans at Haditha and Hamdania, and our 
     soldiers and agents elsewhere, are guilty of atrocities? 
     Regardless of the results of official inquiries and 
     courts-martial, the damage has been done. In the Muslim 
     (and much of the non-Muslim) court of opinion, the verdict 
     is already in.
       Of course, learning about My Lai is hardly assurance 
     against similarly criminal behavior; no more than graphic 
     images of car accidents prevents reckless driving. And 
     focusing on it today can create other problems. One is that 
     we allow it to become representative, and to prejudice our 
     perceptions of all American soldiers' behavior in Vietnam. 
     The other is that we treat it as singular--an aberration for 
     that war or for any American wars.
       We already feel similar tensions regarding the reports out 
     of Iraq. While General Pace assures us that ``99.9 percent of 
     the servicemen and servicewomen'' are behaving properly and 
     humanely, too many Iraqis report registering no surprise in 
     learning about the alleged atrocities.
       So are we saviors or monsters? The truth, as it always 
     does, lives somewhere between. Our military is as thoroughly 
     professional as scrappy guerrilla forces usually are not. But 
     to pretend our soldiers never mistreat others would be a 
     gross lie. After an article in The New York Times Magazine 
     last year about American soldiers accused of drowning an 
     innocent Iraqi and their battalion commander's cover-up, I 
     got an e-mail message from one veteran of the current war 
     that the treatment of that Iraqi differed from the treatment 
     of others only in degree and result, not in kind.
       Apologists for My Lai--and presumably future apologists for 
     Iraq atrocities--are quick to lecture: That's war, buddy. You 
     should see what the other guy does. I object to this argument 
     because it smells like rationalization. It permits us to 
     accept the unacceptable. It resists aspiring to a better way. 
     The very idea of ``wartime atrocity'' is a 20th-century 
     development, the most progressive and hopeful legacy of the 
     world's bloodiest century.
       There is hope. I can't imagine a Haditha or Hamdania 
     version of ``The Battle Hymn of Lieutenant Calley,'' a 
     tribute to the officer responsible at My Lai that cracked the 
     Billboard Top 40 in 1971. Its lyrics ran: ``Sir, I followed 
     all my orders and I did the best I could. / It's hard to 
     judge the enemy and hard to tell the good. / Yet there's not 
     a man among us who would not have understood.''
       Despite the calls to prosecute up the chain of command 
     (indeed, up to President Bush himself) for the alleged crimes 
     in Iraq, I sense more collective sympathy with the

[[Page E1309]]

     novelist William Eastlake's remarks to West Point cadets 
     about My Lai, as quoted in the Encyclopedia of American War 
     Literature: ``You cannot say after wiping out a village, `My 
     superior told me to do it.' You're big boys now. Behave 
     yourselves. Don't blame all your sins on General 
     Westmoreland.''
       Last fall, around the time the Haditha events occurred, 
     another veteran of the current war, a National Guard second 
     lieutenant, confessed to me his war crime. His platoon was 
     searching a home where an Iraqi man was sobbing 
     uncontrollably for the loss of his brother. ``Would somebody 
     shut him up?'' the lieutenant shouted, throwing in an 
     expletive for good measure.

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