(Seriously, this is just another Bowser rant. They happen every so often when I get to thinking. Which generally happens after I've read something. I ought to try science fiction, and learn to avoid like a Conservative. Probably not a lot of need to read further, really.)

\What do Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo and Mai Lai have in common? An inability to learn from mistakes. The excesses are blamed upon low-level "rogues", operating independently of orders must to the disgust of their superiors. The operatives are then sacrificed and the system cleansed.

I was somehow reminded of Mai Lai the other day and the utter and complete tragedy of the situation dawned upon me. We had a 2nd Lieutenant sent to the slammer for a little while and that was it. The US hasn't learned, is afraid to learn, and in the worlds of the Jack Nicholsen character in "A Few Good Men" it doesn't want to know. And is doomed to repeat itself.

There were atrocities galore in Vietnam, not on the scale of Mai Lai but that doesn't matter. Vietnamese weren't regarded as particularly human.

Now here's the kicker. Believe it or not, taking children, kids, average age 19, and sticking them in that pressure cooker with no effective training as to the real war being fought. Sure, they took their gun to the fight. They took their attitudes, they took their bodies and their best intentions. And then were sold out by their Supreme Leaders, who used them as bait in a macabre scheme to turn a guerilla war into something they knew how to fight.

Which didn't work.

Same in Iraq. Those kids aren't volunteer John Waynes, they are well-meaning, well -trained kids fighting their grandpa's war all over again and under the same pressure. Those kids are hardly at fault. They lack leadership, training and an honest mission.

When they start lynching General Officers for the travesties under their commands the US will have learned, will start to win the wars it's fighting and win the hearts and minds of colonials.

As long as they bury matters we will repeat them. Which is tragic in any number of ways. It's hard on the direct victims, it's hard on the perps, it reflects poorly on the society which funds the crimes. The General Officers see that they come out OK, though.

Arf