The British newspaper News of the World on Feb.12
reported an incident of British soldiers beating teenage Iraqis two
years ago and related video has been widely broadcast. Following
the exposal of US troops' abuse of prisoners in Iraq British
soldiers' brutal acts in the war in Iraq gradually come to light,
which leads to shocks as well as contemplation.
The British soldiers' brutal behavior happened two years ago.
During the two years, neither those in question, witnesses nor
those who learned of it later viewed this as brutal or shameful.
Otherwise, the incident wouldn't take two years before it is
exposed. Rather, it caused clamor and shocks in the society two
years later, after it was exposed in the form of video evidence.
There is a big difference in response between the two, which
perhaps can be attributed to the difference between "war culture"
and "peace culture". In other words, things intolerable in a normal
and peaceful society can happen quite often in a war environment
and be viewed as normal.
The distortion of human nature and mentality by war is indeed an
issue worthy of serious studies. It is believed that the US and
British troops' brutality can't be limited to the few incidents
caught by the camera and there must be much more unrecorded by the
camera, only these have been ignored, tolerated and wrapped up in
the special war environment. British Prime Minister Tony Blair's
explanation for this -- "most British soldiers are good" -- is too
juvenile.
If it is argued that the British soldiers' behavior has behind
it a kind of "war culture", it is also true that their behavior has
not been regulated by "wartime laws". After the exposal two years
later the British government and military said they would
investigate. It goes to prove that the British military lacked
internal self-regulating legal environment during the Iraqi war,
the most important of which are education and supervision
mechanisms.
Since the advent of human society it has tried to establish
certain kinds of war civilization. Duke Xiang of State Song in the
Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) was a typical example of
pedant in wartime. However, he was among the first attempting to
propose war morals (for example, refraining from killing the
surrendered and capturing the gray haired etc.).
In more recent times, the international community set up an
elementary treaty system regarding treatment of war prisoners and
civilians and certain social awareness has formed in many
countries. However, such and such abuse behaviors during the war in
Iraq show that effort in this regard is still wanting in some
countries and in the troops that most need war civilization.
Behind the "US troops' prisoner abuse" and "British soldiers'
brutal beating," two ideological elements need to be discussed. One
is the "civilization superiority" and the other "conqueror's
mentality". Under the US and British official propaganda the US and
British soldiers at large have the tendency to regard themselves as
"liberators" and "sowers of advanced civilization". The mentality
will inevitably lead to a kind of disdain of Iraqi culture and
religion and therefore cause many conflicts.
"Conqueror's mentality", on the other hand, is determined by the
fact of occupation. This fact often places a condescending
mentality in the occupiers, a mentality of doing whatever one wants
which induces various ugly elements in the human nature.
War is the highest violent form of human confrontation. To
reduce as much as possible the damage of war is perhaps the
original intention of establishing war civilization. This is a
thing hard to accomplish. However, it is something worthy of try
under the circumstance that war cannot be avoided.
(People's Daily Online February 16, 2006)
