Meet your new thread, same as the old thread.

[Diane_Keaton]

Originally posted by Gattigap
Just so I can follow, is this essentially the Christmas in Cambodia thing? Or does the corroborating witnesses saying, "yeah, we treated the woman that way, but it was in Kuwait" make it different at all? So all of Beauchamp's moral decay occurred before he ever saw combat. Before he entered the theater. Before the grind and inhumanity of war had its way with his tender soul.

This story was not about a cynical, war-weary soldier losing sight of humanity - it was about a newbie who had just finished training and was on his way to his first duty station. His behavior wasn't a result of the hardships of the combat environment - it was a result of his being an innate asshole. A huge, insensitive, loutish asshole.

Not much difference if he was fighting in Kuwait, which he wasn't. The point of the essays was how the war in Iraq is causing moral decay among troops. The dude hadn't even been to Iraq (or fought) yet when the incident allegedly happened.

Junk Yard Blog said it best:

So all of Beauchamp's moral decay occurred before he ever saw combat. Before he entered the theater. Before the grind and inhumanity of war had its way with his tender soul. So all of Beauchamp's moral decay occurred before he ever saw combat. Before he entered the theater. Before the grind and inhumanity of war had its way with his tender soul. This story was not about a cynical, war-weary soldier losing sight of humanity - it was about a newbie who had just finished training and was on his way to his first duty station. His behavior wasn't a result of the hardships of the combat environment - it was a result of his being an innate asshole. A huge, insensitive, loutish asshole.