From the May 12-18 Economist:
“Soldiers in Iraq: Contaminated“:
Of the 1,767 troops questioned by the Pentagon’s mental-health advisory team last September… less than half (47% of soldiers and 38% of marines) felt that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect, as required by the Geneva Conventions. …
More worrying, only around half said they would be willing to report a member of their unit for killing or injuring an innocent non-combatant….
The more often and the longer that soldiers were deployed in Iraq, the more likely they were to suffer mental-health problems and to mistreat civilians.
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“Afghanistan: Hearts, minds and death“:
THE American army this week delivered an apology, and blood money, too, to the families of 19 Afghan civilians killed and 50 wounded by a special forces unit of American marines near Jalalabad on March 4th. …
In the wake of the … shootings, Afghan journalists were quickly on the scene. Several were threatened or had their film erased by American soldiers. One reporter was told: “Delete the photos or I delete you.â€
The Economist encouraged the invasion of Iraq.