ME and Ophelia

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EXPERT ON ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
Iraqi abusers are like you and me

Following on from my previous two posts, today's Sunday Times reports that British soldiers' grief, after the murder of a British soldier, may have sparked brutality. And goes on to explain:

What is it that drives soldiers to risk their careers, a prison sentence and the reputation of their regiment by brutalising prisoners in this way?

Major-General Patrick Cordingley, commander of the 7th Armoured Brigade during the 1991 Gulf War, said: "You get young men ready to do something that the vast majority of people wouldn't ever want to do: to kill other people. Then next thing you bring them down and you say, 'Now you're a peacekeeper'. Of course there is a small percentage who don't make that change easily and react in a way that the vast majority don't."

Yesterday Desmond Morris, an expert on animal behaviour, described what may have driven the soldier to urinate on the Iraqi. "People have a natural need to express dominance but few of use ever get the opportunity," he said. "There is often a wild rush and the person perpetrating the act gets a high. People who do this sort of thing would normally be reasonably civilised. You can't dismiss them as psychopaths. They are like you and me."

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Note: What is it that drives people - during peace time - to risk their careers, a prison sentence and the reputation of their family and colleagues by being a mass murderer like Dr Harold Shipman...or a paedophile...or a nurse that kills patients...or a carer that abuses and tortures the disabled and infirm, the mentally ill, the chronically ill and disabled, the elderly and young in their homes...

Personally, I do not find the news, photos, propaganda and allegations, coming out of the war in Iraq at all shocking. Dirty things happen in all wars on all sides. That is why war is so horrible. There's a fine line between humans and beasts. Freedom, peace and democracy come at a high price. Armed forces are trained to kill and defend. It is their job. It is what they are paid to do. Coalition forces are not in Iraq on a picnic. They deserve more of our morale support and appreciation.

Worse things are happening right now in the Sudan. Who is bleating about that? Where is the compassion and outcry about the humiliation of the horrific physical rapes? The brutality and murders? The 30,000 already dead...

Dr Jim Moore has the latest news and fresh links on the genocide in Sudan. See what bloggers can do to help by linking together.