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Throughout U.S. military service, members are taught common moral values and their applications, especially in warfare throughout our nation’s and world history.
Those American practiced values include: honesty, respect, responsibility, empathy, compassion, integrity, perseverance, gratitude, self-discipline, and teamwork. These values are reinforced and practiced during advanced training and in daily activities.
As military operations are contemplated and planned, various scenarios, actions, the possible effects of the proposed actions and how to mitigate them are reviewed before decisions are made.
Once the operation or action is taken or completed, there is a thorough after-action review in which members go into a blow-by-blow study of the good, bad, and ugly of the operation and how to improve similar actions in the future.
It appears the current U.S. Department of War leadership has failed in the application of the moral lessons most had supposedly learned and practiced, as well as in operational planning and review.
In the air strikes against alleged drug traffickers, the U.S. was the aggressor. Using a phrase like ” the fog of war” under the guise of “war on drugs” to justify killing folks clinging to debris and not in a position to strike back is unconscionable to me, a U.S. Army veteran with more than 32 years of active duty both in the U.S. and overseas.
Maybe phrases like “court-martial,” “war crime,” “crime against humanity,” or “charged with murder” are more appropriate.
Maureen Ramsey
Lubec
