Sheldon Richman on Bowe Bergdahl, the Taliban, and the Fog of War

​The
“fog of war” is a reference to the moral chaos as well as the
rampant confusion on the battlefield. Individuals kill others for
no other reason than that they are ordered to. Things deemed
unambiguously bad in civilian life are authorized and even lauded
in war. The killing and maiming of acknowledged innocents—in
particular children and the elderly—is excused as “collateral
damage.” No wonder that some individuals thrust into this morass
sometimes act differently from how soldiers behave in romantic war
movies. The hell of war is internal as well as external. We might
remember this, writes Sheldon Richman, as the story of Sgt. Bowe
Robert Bergdahl unfolds.

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