The military, it is said, is always preparing to fight the last war. That’s particularly true today, when the last war was a war and the current war is a police action. A few weeks ago, the Pentagon issued a report on the conduct of American troops in Kosovo. The report is the result of an investigation triggered in January, when an 11-year-old Albanian girl was raped and murdered by a sergeant with the 82nd Airborne Division.
According to the report, American troops, who are in Kosovo as part of the international KFOR peacekeeping force, have been involved in a series of incidents in which Albanian men have been beaten and Albanian women sexually molested. The report stated American troops show a tendency to favor Serbs and be hostile toward ethnic Albanians. It’s worth noting the U.S. Army, as well as other KFOR troops, were sent to Kosovo after the Serbian army and paramilitary police conducted a terror campaign against ethnic Albanians.
The Pentagon’s report concluded that soldiers of the 82nd Airborne experienced difficulties tempering their combat mentality and adapting to their role as peacekeepers. U.S. troops do not receive peacekeeping training and the Army is resisting calls to train our soldiers as peacekeepers, preferring to keep them ready for the ultimate test of all-out combat.
I’m not a military expert, but that excuse sounds awfully lame to me. Let’s examine this point by point:
Point One – American troops were friendly to Serbs and hostile to Albanians. I’ll admit, the ideal peacekeeper is fair and equitable to all, but failing that standard, it should be said that American troops were sent in to protect the Albanians, not beat them up. I would hope combat training would include some mention of distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys, and I’m not sure peacekeeping greatly differs from combat in that regard. I know we had trouble with this in Vietnam, but I thought we’d gotten over it.
Point Two – I know this is not what the Pentagon intended, but their explanation of the troops’ problems seems to say that beating and molesting civilians is all right, as long as it occurs in a combat, rather than a peacekeeping, operation. Do the generals really mean to suggest that our armed forces are such brutal marauders that they can only be released for all-or-nothing, do-or-die combat? That they cannot be held accountable for misdeeds in situations of lower intensity than all-out war? Let’s say a hurricane comes up the east coast and the troops are called out to fill sandbags. Should we expect a few citizens to get punched and a couple of high-school girls to be groped as the price we pay?
An army runs on discipline and a unit that cannot maintain discipline during peacekeeping duty cannot be expected to maintain discipline in the face of enemy fire. If we are not training our troops to be peacekeepers, we should, because we’re going to see more peacekeeping in the future, not less. There are two reasons for this. First, we are the world’s only remaining superpower. We constantly hear politicians thump their chests over that. As such, we are the world’s policeman, whether we like it or not – it comes with the superpower title. Second, we’re learning, finally, not to wait for war. If we’d had a peacekeeping mission to the Sudetenland in 1938, we might not have had a World War in 1939. Distasteful as peacekeeping may be, it sure beats the alternative.
An inordinate portion of every American tax dollar goes to the Department of Defense. It’s time we got something of value for our money.
Few Good Men
The military, it is said, is always preparing to fight the last war. That’s particularly true today, when the last war was a war and the current war is a police action. A few weeks ago, the Pentagon issued a report on the conduct of American troops in Kosovo. The report is the result of an investigation triggered in January, when an 11-year-old Albanian girl was raped and murdered by a sergeant with the 82nd Airborne Division.
According to the report, American troops, who are in Kosovo as part of the international KFOR peacekeeping force, have been involved in a series of incidents in which Albanian men have been beaten and Albanian women sexually molested. The report stated American troops show a tendency to favor Serbs and be hostile toward ethnic Albanians. It’s worth noting the U.S. Army, as well as other KFOR troops, were sent to Kosovo after the Serbian army and paramilitary police conducted a terror campaign against ethnic Albanians.
The Pentagon’s report concluded that soldiers of the 82nd Airborne experienced difficulties tempering their combat mentality and adapting to their role as peacekeepers. U.S. troops do not receive peacekeeping training and the Army is resisting calls to train our soldiers as peacekeepers, preferring to keep them ready for the ultimate test of all-out combat.
I’m not a military expert, but that excuse sounds awfully lame to me. Let’s examine this point by point:
Point One – American troops were friendly to Serbs and hostile to Albanians. I’ll admit, the ideal peacekeeper is fair and equitable to all, but failing that standard, it should be said that American troops were sent in to protect the Albanians, not beat them up. I would hope combat training would include some mention of distinguishing the good guys from the bad guys, and I’m not sure peacekeeping greatly differs from combat in that regard. I know we had trouble with this in Vietnam, but I thought we’d gotten over it.
Point Two – I know this is not what the Pentagon intended, but their explanation of the troops’ problems seems to say that beating and molesting civilians is all right, as long as it occurs in a combat, rather than a peacekeeping, operation. Do the generals really mean to suggest that our armed forces are such brutal marauders that they can only be released for all-or-nothing, do-or-die combat? That they cannot be held accountable for misdeeds in situations of lower intensity than all-out war? Let’s say a hurricane comes up the east coast and the troops are called out to fill sandbags. Should we expect a few citizens to get punched and a couple of high-school girls to be groped as the price we pay?
An army runs on discipline and a unit that cannot maintain discipline during peacekeeping duty cannot be expected to maintain discipline in the face of enemy fire. If we are not training our troops to be peacekeepers, we should, because we’re going to see more peacekeeping in the future, not less. There are two reasons for this. First, we are the world’s only remaining superpower. We constantly hear politicians thump their chests over that. As such, we are the world’s policeman, whether we like it or not – it comes with the superpower title. Second, we’re learning, finally, not to wait for war. If we’d had a peacekeeping mission to the Sudetenland in 1938, we might not have had a World War in 1939. Distasteful as peacekeeping may be, it sure beats the alternative.
An inordinate portion of every American tax dollar goes to the Department of Defense. It’s time we got something of value for our money.