Personal Injury Law

Is military justice broken?

By Edward Bills

Many liberals claim that the military justice system is broken and that the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the military’s criminal code, has failed or that the United States pay lip service to the law of war while disregarding it in fact.

The first response is "Hogwash." Remember that war crime charges involve very few of the many thousands of heroic U.S. war fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also that being charged does not necessarily mean one is guilty. (Duh) The Uniform Code of Military Justice has proved itself in peace and combat, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, undeniably, there are problems in prosecuting war crimes.

Although the code works well, the law of war — the part of international law that regulates armed hostilities — does not. The wonder is that it works at all. Some war crimes go unreported. After the Abu Ghraib scandal, greater attention is now given to enforcing the law of war, which partly explains the greater number of media accounts of criminality. Our military is not riddled with criminals. Rather, commanders are paying closer attention to possible war crimes and, as required by military law, they are investigating and reporting them.

In Haditha, after an improvised explosive device killed a popular Marine, 24 Iraqi noncombatants were killed. The Marine battalion commander denied the possibility of his men’s criminality and failed to make sufficient inquiry into their actions, multiple investigations allege. Time magazine backed this up, and Marine headquarters cast a wide net in charging those possibly involved, including senior officers who may have inadequately investigated. The division commander, a two-star general, has been administratively punished.

After a shaky start in Iraq, military justice is working. Three soldiers involved in the rape-murder-burning of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl were court-martialed and sentenced to 90, 100 and 110 years confinement. Problems remain, but find a system without problems. Over time, our military’s courtroom record is good.

Full post as published by Bodily Injury Blog on November 09, 2007 (boomark / email).