War Is Hell

As if we need any more reasons to wish an end to war, I read in The Washington Post about 22-year-old Spec. Edward Richmond, who just completed a two-year prison sentence for killing an Iraqi civilian. Edward's parents tell folks that their son joined the Army after September 11, as if the attack on America was the reason. But it turns out that then 18-year-old Edward was facing charges for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana, battery of a police officer and resisting arrest; it was suggested that the DA wouldn't seek a conviction if Edward joined the Army, and so he did. The felonies weren't the first of Edward's troubles; they capped off years of hostility toward authority, fights and other signs of alienation. His recruiter said, "He had some problems, but it wasn't anything that we couldn't put him in the Army for."

Edward ended up shooting a cow herder who'd been handcuffed and led away by a superior officer, the result, he says, of misinterpreting the situation. His father is suing the Army because that officer, he discovered, may also have killed Iraqi civilians and yet testified against his son at trial. But despite the father's obvious love for his son, another soldier's separate actions don't change what Edward did. The father said it himself: "War is not a pretty thing. Things happen in a war zone."

Unimaginable things. Instead of trying to justify them from all sides, we'd do better to look them in the eye and recognize them for the unadorned horrors they are.