And it's this refusal to confront the past that is so maddening about Kerrey and his defenders. There are scores of veterans haunted by the memories of what Vietnam tweezed out of and then let snap back into them. One is increasingly hard-pressed to see this in Kerrey. New York Times Magazine author Gregory Vistica has taken the case as far as he can, but the ongoing efforts of Vistica and 60 Minutes II are by no means the end of the line. While the Kerrey case may be complex and never truly solved, it is a case that deserves the most thorough examination possible, because one should take any opportunity to speak for the dead.
American troops are as capable as any other of committing atrocities.
In 1999 and 2000, I reported exclusively from the Eritrean side, and I was troubled by journalists who viewed the human rights component of their reporting mission as one-sided. They were hell-bent on documenting crimes of war by Ethiopians, but never seemed to entertain the notion that it was possible similar offenses might have been committed by Eritreans, and that painting the fullest picture of reality required an effort to at least explore that possibility, too. Others tried, only to have their efforts derailed by the constraints of time and space, or editors obsessed with archaic conventions of the news business. Which is not surprising, but a natural and inevitable outcome of war's intrinsic amorality. Whatever argument can be made for the righteousness of one side versus the other, it still warps and corrupts everyone it touches, and it never really lets go.