US Soldier Sentenced to 90 Years in Rape Case

James Barker testified to his part in the brutal gang rape of a 14 year old Iraqi qirl and the killing of her family.

When this young man was 16, do you think he had rape and murder in his heart? I doubt it. However, terrible situations do terrible things to people. The 1971 Standford Prison Experiment showed what can happen to young men when they are put in powerful and powerless situations http://www.prisonexp.org/. In this experiment, perfectly healthy young men volunteered for an experiment in which 1/2 of them played guards and the other 1/2 prisoners in a pretend prison in the basement of a building at Stanford University. Within hours, the guards became brutal and the prisons brutalized.

Young soldiers are both powerful, they carry guns, and they are powerless, lurking around corners are insurgents waiting to kill them.

Their actions were wrong and they deserve to be punished. My only caveat is that such young men need closer supervision. Someone should have realized how desparate they were becoming, how hate filled they were becoming, and how out of control they were becoming.

Morally, these young soldiers are culpable. At the same time, the military leadership has to keep in mind that some young men and women (e.g. Abu Ghraib) crack under such circumstances and that all efforts should be made to prevent it.