The Puritan Culture of America's Military: U.S. Army War Crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan PDF
Preview The Puritan Culture of America's Military: U.S. Army War Crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan
The PuriTan CulTure of ameriCa’s miliTary Classical and Contemporary social Theory series editor: stjepan G. mestrovic, Texas a&m university, usa Classical and Contemporary social Theory publishes rigorous scholarly work that re-discovers the relevance of social theory for contemporary times, demonstrating the enduring importance of theory for modern social issues. The series covers social theory in a broad sense, inviting contributions on both ‘classical’ and modern theory, thus encompassing sociology, without being confined to a single discipline. as such, work from across the social sciences is welcome, provided that volumes address the social context of particular issues, subjects, or figures and offer new understandings of social reality and the contribution of a theorist or school to our understanding of it. The series considers significant new appraisals of established thinkers or schools, comparative works or contributions that discuss a particular social issue or phenomenon in relation to the work of specific theorists or theoretical approaches. Contributions are welcome that assess broad strands of thought within certain schools or across the work of a number of thinkers, but always with an eye toward contributing to contemporary understandings of social issues and contexts. Also in the series a Genealogy of social Violence founding murder, rawlsian fairness, and the future of the family Clint Jones isBn 978-1-4724-1722-0 liquid sociology metaphor in Zygmunt Bauman’s analysis of modernity Edited by Mark Davis isBn 978-1-4094-3887-8 Violence, society and radical Theory Bataille, Baudrillard and Contemporary society William Pawlett isBn 978-1-4094-5542-4 The Puritan Culture of america’s military u.s. army War Crimes in iraq and afghanistan ronald lorenZo Blinn College, USA © ronald lorenzo 2014 all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. ronald lorenzo has asserted his right under the Copyright, designs and Patents act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court east 110 Cherry street union road suite 3-1 farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818 surrey, Gu9 7PT usa england www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: lorenzo, ronald. The Puritan culture of america’s military : u.s. army war crimes in iraq and afghanistan / by ronald lorenzo. pages cm.—(Classical and contemporary social theory) includes bibliographical references and index. isBn 978-1-4724-1982-8 (hardback)—isBn 978-1-4724-1983-5 (ebook)— isBn 978-1-4724-1984-2 (epub) 1. sociology, military—united states. 2. Courts-martial and courts of inquiry—United States. 3. Puritans—Influence. 4. Iraq War, 2003-2011— atrocities. 5. afghan War, 2001—atrocities. 6. military offenses—united states. 7. War crimes—Case studies. i. Title. ii. Title: us army war crimes in iraq and afghanistan. u21.5.l65 2013 306.2’70973—dc23 2013020858 isBn 9781472419828 (hbk) isBn 9781472419835 (ebk – Pdf) isBn 9781472419842 (ebk – ePuB) III Contents List of Figures and Tables vii Preface ix Series Editor’s Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii Nomenclature xv An Excerpt from The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 1 1 Introduction 3 “A Prayer Against Our Enemies” 11 2 An Overview of American Military Justice 13 Excerpts from The Swedish Articles of War 25 3 Puritan Military Justice 27 Excerpts from One Letter and Two Speeches 53 4 Puritanism and Responsibility 55 Two Stories of Hunting Witches 79 5 Puritanism and Revenge 81 An Excerpt on Military Superstitions of World War II 113 6 Puritanism and Superstition 115 An Excerpt from Sam Vaknin’s Malignant Self Love 149 7 Puritanism and Narcissism 151 A Definition from The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce 171 8 Conclusion and Discussion 173 References 185 Index 207 This page has been left blank intentionally List of Figures and Tables Figures 7.1 PowerPoint Slide “Afghanistan Stability/COIN Dynamics” 167 Tables 3.1 Military Justice System Statistics for the United States Army, Fiscal Years 1995-2012 29 3.2 Military Justice System Statistics for the United States Navy and Marine Corps, Fiscal Years 1995-2012 31 3.3 Military Justice System Statistics for the United States Air Force, Fiscal Years 1995-2012 33 3.4 Military Justice System Statistics for the United States Coast Guard, Fiscal Years 1995-2012 35 To my parents, Mary and Roger Lorenzo, and in memory of my best friend, Jason Charles Crawford (July 19, 1971–January 2, 2009). Preface Exploring Puritanical cultural habits in the 21st century American military, the following study focuses on U.S. Army courts-martial in the Global War on Terror. The study uses Emile Durkheim’s original sociological interpretation of crime and deviance. That interpretation is linked with responsibility as described by Durkheim’s follower Paul Fauconnet in Responsibility: A Study in Sociology ([1928] 1978) and with a new cultural reading of Max Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism ([1905] 1976). The study is an inductive, descriptive examination of the Puritanical aspects of American military culture based on its treatment of acts labeled as deviant and criminal in the Global War on Terror. Four sets of war crimes are examined: Abu Ghraib (which occurred in Iraq in 2004), Operation Iron Triangle (which occurred in Iraq in 2006), the Baghdad canal killings (which occurred in Iraq in 2007), and another set of killings which occurred in Afghanistan. My data include primary data collected through participation and observation for one court-martial related to the Baghdad canal killings as well as secondary data sources from the other cases including records of trial, investigation reports, charge sheets, sworn statements, and other documentation. The study illuminates how unconscious, Puritan cultural habits color and shape both military actions and their perceptions. I explore Puritanism and its influence on military law, responsibility, revenge, “magic” (in its sociological sense), and narcissism. The study concludes with observations and recommendations for changes in U.S. military law. With regard to legal issues regarding my use of court documents, the reader should be aware of the following: all material pertaining to the records of trial from which I quote are regarded by law as public documents. The records of trial (ROT) include the transcripts of Article 32 hearings, other pre-trial hearings, investigative reports, sworn statements, transcripts of testimony at courts-martial, and other documents. The only exception to this rule is the AR 15-6 report case in Afghanistan, which was not included in Corporal Jeremy Morlock’s ROT. However, I obtained the Maywand case AR 15-6 report from a news source, and various news sources have already quoted extensively from this report in numerous news reports. Because that specific AR 15-6 report was obtained from a news source, it is also a public document. In summary, all my usage of government documents in this study is lawful, and the government of the United States does not own any copyright to any of this public information.
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