*spark-online.com >> version 21.0, JUNE.2001 >> ROBERT MARCOM

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of heroes and horrors

by robert marcom

Bob Kerrey, retired United States Senator of Nebraska, and ex-Governor of that state, is being lauded by the U.S. press for "coming forward" and "speaking candidly" of his involvement in what can only be described as mass murder during wartime conditions. The killing of between 12 and 21 civilian women, children and elderly men is portrayed as inevitable due to the confusion and fog of war. Okay, so what?

We are told the "so what" is that it is unfair to judge acts which take place in the heat of war. Nonsense. We judge Bosnian General Radko Mladic for his mass murders. We judged individual Nazi officers for their mass murder. We investigated and judged our own officers in cases when they committed murder of civilians in Europe, Korea, and Vietnam.

The classic example of American war crimes is My Lai. Approximately 500 innocent Vietnamese civilians were executed by Lieutenant William Calley's platoon, Charlie Company, Task Force Barker on May 16, 1968. Calley was tried and found guilty of premeditated murder on all counts. President Richard M. Nixon intervened, and as a consequence William Calley was paroled about two weeks after his conviction. The larger consequence is that within the same two weeks polls reversed the record of opinion: a majority of the U.S. electorate was found to be opposed to the war in Vietnam.

We can and must judge these crimes after the fact. There is something much larger at stake than reputations of individual soldiers. We are told that Kerrey should be exonerated because "it was that kind of war." How will the human condition ever improve if we allow such weak excuses to hide and cover despicable deeds? How can we become a humane world culture of human beings if we condone ignorance and promote cover-ups?

War is deadly, demeaning, and debilitating for soldiers. That should be a sufficient clue as to its danger for the society that commits acts of war. Too long, this Western culture has given glory to and glamorized this act of state brutality. War is equally dangerous, demeaning and debilitating for countries and societies. All wars are "that kind of war."

Bob Kerrey performed acts of heroism, one of which won him the highest military award of the United States: the Congressional Medal of Honor. The deed he performed only days before his heroic act was a true military horror--even if you limit the discussion to Kerrey's own description of the event. War should always be discussed and contemplated with both types of acts in mind.

When one accepts deeds such as those admitted to by Senator Kerrey then one should consider what possible reason a society would have to improve the human impulse to commit war. These acts are not inevitable. They are a common component of wars. The conclusion should not be, therefore to put the deed behind us, and move on. It should be to end wars. Wars are politics conducted by violence. We don't condone violence in any other sort of negotiation. We cannot condone violence as an acceptable part of the political repertoire.

Robert Marcom is a regular contributor to *spark-online.