We cannot judge what we cannot know

Last updated 6/6/2006 at Noon

As the nation braces for the fallout from the alleged massacre of Iraqi civilians in Haditha, remember the words of the late Tom Gibson of Sisters:

“I firmly believe that only a combat soldier has the right to judge another combat soldier. Only he knows how hard it is to retain his sanity, to do his duty and survive with some semblance of honor. You have to learn to forgive others and yourself for some of the things that are done.” (“Citizen Soldiers,” Stephen Ambrose, page 353).

Gibson was talking about the killing of 10 disarmed German POWs by an American Airborne officer during the Batttle of the Bulge in December 1944. Tom knew what he was talking about. He was a warrior, who fought with the 101st Airborne in Europe in World War Two and with the U.S. Marine Corps at Chosin Reservoir in Korea.

The facts about Haditha are not all in, but this much is clear: Something terrible happened in that town one day last November.

But even when we know all the facts, we living here in beautiful, green, peaceful Sisters will never truly understand what happened. We can hardly fathom the toxic cocktail of sledgehammer heat, grinding fatigue, numbing fear and rage that courses through the veins of many combat soldiers in Iraq.

War is brutal and counter-insurgency warfare has its own special nastiness. Some of the Kilo Company Marines involved in the Haditha incident were part of the savage extermination campaign in Fallujah last year, attemping to root out what had become a nest of committed fighters in a grueling round of urban combat.

Many were in their second tour of duty. We cannot know how hard it must be for them to retain their sanity, to do their duty, to retain some semblance of honor.

The line between sanctioned and unsanctioned killing is fine and easily blurred. When war grinds on and on, when a soldier sees buddies ripped apart by bombs, when violent death becomes commonplace, the line becomes all too easy to cross.

Warriors know this; too often, the men who send them into the cauldron do not.

Most soldiers don’t cross that line. Those who do must be held to account; otherwise an army is nothing but a ravening mob.

But we whose depths will never be plumbed should refrain from judgement. We cannot know. We can only mourn.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.