And I also believe that Israel, with America and England and Australia, are probably the most ethically constrained militaries in the world. - Martin Peretz
I am getting exasperated listening to tendentious ideologues defend U.S. and Israeli war crimes with the rather trite assertion that "America (or Israel) has the most moral army in the world." Really? How can that be empirically evidenced. The Washington Post reports today that a U.S. Army Sergenat pleaded guilty to slaughtering a group of Iraqis (with the help of his men, he bound the Iraqis and shot them in the back of the head). Lets not forget the stomach churning account that Tom Ricks opens his new book with, which describes a U.S. soldier killing an Iraqi fighter and then urinating on his bloody skull. The are a manifold of other instances where war crimes have been perpetrated by U.S. forces in Iraq.
Of course, after the Israelis most recent massacre in Gaza we heard the common refrain "Israel is the most moral army in the world" from many particularly biased observers (like Ehud Barak, the ISRAELI Defense Minister). While Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B'tselem and a host of other human rights organizations have condemned Israeli actions in Gaza, this fallacious suggestion has become a generally accepted meme. When allegations do arise, the IDF is sure to respond with an "investigation", which almost always acquits IDF solidiers of responsibility or proffers light sentencing. Today the IDF finished its most recent probe into allegations that it committed war crimes and...what do you know? It claimed the allegations were hearsay. Maybe they were, but, the reality is that there were a multifarious number of execrable atrocities committed in Gaza and the people investigating and prosecuting these crimes should not be the same that committed them. Does it makes sense to have the same people that formulated policies that led to war crimes then judge those actions? Why don't we let murders investigate and prosecute themselves? Well, because much like IDF, they would always be "innocent".
I have a great deal of respect for members of the armed forces, but, that respect does not translate into a reflexive immunity. War is an awful thing and it seems to have an awful psychological affect on soldiers leading them to do things that are ineffably horrifying. Don't go around telling the world that your army is the most moral in the world when it is demonstrably not. Stop the lies and the fabrications it only makes the immoral acts seem more egregious and more immoral.
I'm 5'8, and as much as I would like to tell people that I'm tall (because if I was 6'4 or so, I'd probably be running the point for the Lakers right now) I don't. Why? Because I am demonstrably not.






