Rules of Engagement? A Social Anatomy of an American War Crime. Operation Iron Triangle, Iraq - Softcover

Mestrovic, Stjepan

9780875866727: Rules of Engagement? A Social Anatomy of an American War Crime. Operation Iron Triangle, Iraq

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0875866727 ISBN 13: 9780875866727

Publisher: Algora Publishing, 2008

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Blackwater, Abu Ghraib and other scandals in Iraq were presaged by the murderous Operation Iron Triangle in May 2006 when US soldiers were ordered to kill all Iraqis of military age. The soldiers were imprisoned; the officer was merely reprimanded. Mestrovic details the American leadership’s fake commitment to the Geneva Conventions and the rule of law, fake due process for defendants, fake goals of promoting democracy, and compulsion to repeat our errors in Vietnam. The Blackwater scandal involved killing unarmed Iraqis in accordance with "rules of engagement" that were apparently similar to the case analyzed in these pages.

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About the Author

Dr. Mestrovic teaches at Texas A &M University. His last book was The Trials of Abu Ghraib: An Expert Witness Account of Shame and Honor (2007). He has testified at The Hague and at Fort Hood.

Review

As an expert witness called to testify at war crimes trials and courts martial, Mestrovic has had a unique position to view how the law and war intersects. Not only has he rendered the public service of making such trials fairer and better, but he has used his proximity to the trials and knowledge of their participants to craft a number of compelling sociological studies of issues of guilt and command responsibility in war crimes and in torture.
In Rules of Engagement, Mestrovic interrogates obfuscations and contradictions in language to reveal the role of command in war crimes. But he also points to deep societal divisions over whether or not such events make Americans feel guilt or shame over such events done in their name -- and whether we are capable of feeling them again and preventing war crimes and abuses. --Richard Byrne, Chronicle of Higher Education

Because of his experience with war crime trials at The Hague in 1999 and in three Abu Ghraib courts martial in 2005, Mestrovic (sociology, Texas A&M U.) was asked to provide expert testimony in sociology and psychology for a legal case in which US soldiers were charged, and convicted, of murdering three Iraqis near Samarra in May 2006. On one level, he says, he describes that case, but in fact he is mostly concerned with the rules of engagement (ROE) the soldiers were given, and whether they are related to other ROE and other killings in Iraq. --BOOK NEWS, Inc./Reference & Research Book News

A fascinating study of command and social conditioning in a military setting, this is also an examination of alleged prevarication in the US military. Individuals under pressure to coverup wrongdoing are prone to lying. But the form, style and even content of their untruths derive from group affiliation, military, civilian or otherwise. This illuminating tale of alleged military massacre and attempted cover-up in Iraq offers much to consider for both military and civilian readers.

Adam Zagorin -- Senior Correspondent, TIME magazine
Stjepan Mestrovic's study of the war crimes committed in Operation Iron Triangle is a masterful account of one of many such atrocities committed by the United States in its tragically conceived and executed war in Iraq. Mestrovic carefully documents the operation and even provides supplementary evidence of its occurrence in his appendices. He also examines carefully the more general problem of how to conceptualize such state actions, suggesting ways we can move beyond them in the future.
Charles B. Strozier is a professor of history and Director of the Center on Terrorism, John Jay College, CUNY
Since 9/11 euphemism and confusion have dominated politics and strategy. But what does this mean in human terms? In this passionate and compelling book Stjepan Mestrovic looks at Operation Iron Triangle and what happens when Rules of Engagement become a mess. This book brings a hidden yet telling incident from Iraq screaming into the light and shows what the best sociological imagination can do when it confronts its times. Shattering and necessary; this is a book that raises the questions that need to be asked. Read it.

Keith Tester, Professor of Sociology, University of Hull, UK
At last, in contrast to the media quagmire of amplification and distortion, we have a penetrating study of how war crimes are handled. In this superb book, Mestrovic uses forensic skills in dissecting military double-think and exposing how 'the enemy within' is stereotyped, victimized and dumped. Essential reading for anyone interested in the half-baked morality of our times. --Chris Rojek, Professor of Sociology & Culture, Brunel University, West London