Sheldon Richman on Bowe Bergdahl, the Taliban, and the Fog of War
(Sgt. Jesse Stence/U.S. Marines)
?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.