It Kinda Takes Your Breath Away

When an occupying power prosecutes its own soldiers for war crimes you can bet that the alleged offence is outrageous. Look at the notable cases out of Iraq such as the killing of 24-Iraqi civilians by a marine unit that had just lost a man to an improvised explosive device. IF those marines are ordered to stand trial and that's just an if at this point, their defence will be that they were following the rules of engagement. The issue will be not whether they killed unarmed civilians but whether those who pulled the triggers acted "reasonably."

Counter-insurgency is a genuinely ugly form of warfare, one which western soldiers are ill-equiped to handle. In the current two wars it is typically impossible to determine just what the civilian you're looking at has in mind. He may be friendly. He may be indifferent. He may be a guerrilla sympathizer. He may be a guerrilla coming to kill you. Every local you see has to be considered a potential, immediate threat.

Once outside their garrison, our soldiers are under constant threat of improvised explosive devices, snipers or attacks by machine guy or rocket-propelled grenade. All too often our people don't even see the enemy until he opens fire on them. All too often the insurgent simply fades away before he can be attacked and destroyed.

So far, at least, the worst excesses have been solely American but it is the U.S. soldiers who have seen their tours abruptly extended or just get home in time to get orders to go back. Their level of frustration and angst must be palpable, especially for those who don't see any prospect of victory for their sacrifice.

Do we risk putting Canadian soldiers in the same bind? Quite possibly. We already have a problem with the limited number of troops we can deploy. That means our soldiers will eventually face a rotation burden something like that in the states. I believe our soldiers are better trained, better disciplined and, like the Brits, a lot less "trigger happy" than the Americans. But, eventually, the training and discipline may not be enough.

If we keep running our people back through the same grinder, we have to be prepared for incidents we may not be very proud of. That's part of the price of putting our soldiers in this situation.