I am sometimes told by apologists for the military and the current wars that they were in the military and never saw anyone in the military do the terrible things that I mention in my articles or that soldiers have the best of motives and intentions.

Army sergeant Calvin Gibbs was just sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of murdering three Afghan civilians and “keeping decomposing fingers, leg bones and a tooth as trophies from corpses, and organizing the gang beating of a fellow soldier he feared would report the rampant hashish use in what Army officials say was an ‘out of control platoon’.”

We should not forget, however, that the Afghan war is itself a crime against the Afghan people.

The Best of Laurence M. Vance