From: James Rogers (jamesr@best.com)
Date: Fri Apr 12 2002 - 17:59:48 MDT
On Fri, 2002-04-12 at 16:23, CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:
>
> Who has a problem with judging soldiers fairly? The fact that people
> can and do go haywire in combat further increases the value of recording
> as much as possible of the situation so that we can figure out how to
> improve functioning in difficult situations, and alter conflicts so that
> all participants act as constructively as possilble. Recording actions
> doesn't require unjust use of the data.
I don't have a problem with this either. What I was objecting to was
the idea that a soldier should have to justify every pull of the trigger
in a firefight to ordinary civilian standards after the fact. In
practice I think you would see a lot of soldiers getting crucified by a
population that is completely disconnected from what combat is actually
like. Quite frankly, most people in the Western world suffer from a
total disconnect with reality when faced with the brutal truths that
much of the rest of the world faces on a regular basis. This is the same
population that will chow down on a steak one minute and then reel in
disgust and horror the next at the idea that anyone would kill animals.
The other problem that I have is that the same people that are judging
the soldiers are in all probability the same people who are directly or
indirectly responsible for giving them their mission and training. It
should reflect as much on the judges as the judgees when the military
exhibits systematic criminal behavior.
My concerns are more pragmatic than theoretical in nature.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
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