Sadly, we'll never get it right.

War ain't pretty. And it's downright immoral. Because the intent is to kill, kill, kill. Every which way. Soldiers kill soldiers. They kill innocent civilians, too. The killings are intentional and unintentional. Some soldiers go berserk. I suppose that was the case with the American staff sergeant. Apparently went out at 3 in the morning into a remote Afghan village and murdered 16 Afghans, including women and children. Why? Maybe because that's the nature of war. Shit happens. Maybe it's an attitude of kill or be killed. Killing becomes routine. Senseless. Insane. The staff sergeant had already served three tours of duty in Iraq. And now here he was in Afghanistan. A fourth tour. His whole life was becoming a horrific tour of killing. Yes, killing for the sake of killing. Maybe we Americans have become good and expert at killing. We still have capital punishment. We keep finding better and more efficient ways to judge and put people to death. Used to be that we strung 'em up. On the gallows. Or we strapped them in an electric chair and turned on the juice. Literally fried 'em to death. I read about how the staff sergeant massacred the 16 Afghans. Human beings. An entire family. Went about it methodically. Execution style. Maybe he was trained to think of them as less than humans. Not real people. Hard to say what goes on in a twisted mind. Makes me wonder how many soldiers have twisted minds. I served in the U.S Army. A long time ago. I knew soldiers then with twisted minds. Capable of killing. Because that's what they were trained for. Kill the 'enemy.' Without hesitation. Without question. Without conscience. Doesn't surprise me when I read about what happened in Afghanistan. Sometimes, life is sordid. We're told that the soldier will be brought to justice. What does that mean? In many states, people are executed for far less crimes. Is that true justice? Should we kill the killers that our system helped to create? We can keep killing for killing's sake. And now we salve our consciences by executing people in a 'more humane way.' By lethal injection. I guess that's more civilized. We've progressed as a human race. No longer nailing a guy to a cross. But still, so many ways to kill. We don't even have to do it one at a time anymore. Think of it. A single bomb can wipe out an entire city. Already has. Hiroshima. Nagasaki. All in the name of doing the right thing. When really, it's all wrong. War is obscene. And the sad thing is, we'll never get it right. It's not in our genes. --Jim Broede