The title says it all really, the article, an extract from a book about a platoon stationed in a dangerous part of Iraq early on in the occupation, details how four soldiers carried out the act and to an extent examines why they did it.
The usual defence of a few bad apples will likely be applied and it certainly has more merit as an argument than it did in defence of the top down tolerated abuse of prisoners in detention centres in Iraq such as Abu Ghraib (though it is noteworthy some of those who did not commit the crime didn't feel compelled to report their later knowledge of the incident to superiors) rape and cold blooded murder are not official US tactics in Iraq or Afghanistan (JSOC notwithstanding), this ain't Vietnam kids.
That to me is irrelevant, the reality of war is that horrifically unpleasant events combine with periods of complete boredom to adversely affect people. In addition those who are awful people to begin with can take advantage of the confusion and their relative power within a conflict zone to do awful things. The deification of Troops means neither appropriate questions are asked nor appropriate oversight is given to the activities of these young, often disturbed young men in unstable and chaotic parts of the world. Maybe most soldiers are nice people (well nice trained killers) but the fact remains that when you inflict armed conflict and invasion upon a country, no matter how noble your rhetoric, you are opening the door to this kind of event. As a civilian majority we need to be much more aware of this and much more cautious to endorse military intervention given the amount of suffering this will inflict upon the civilian population of the countries we choose to invade.
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