How much easier it is to surrender to the will of superiors, to merge into the anonymity of the group.如何容易得多，這是投降，到會的上級，融入不願透露姓名的該集團。 It takes uncommon courage to resist military powers of intimidation, peer pressure, and the atmosphere of racism and hate that drives all imperial wars.它罕見的勇氣，抗拒軍事強國的恐嚇，同儕壓力，氣氛的種族主義和仇恨驅使所有帝國的戰爭。

Silencing the Witnesses to War沉默的證人戰爭

War crimes are collective in nature.戰爭罪行是集體性質的。 Especially in wars based on fraud, soldiers are expected to lie - to their country, to their community, even to themselves.尤其是在戰爭的基礎上欺詐，士兵預計的謊言-他們的國家，他們的社區，甚至是自己。 The silencing process begins on the battlefield in the presence of officers, power-holders who seek to nullify the perceptions and personal experience of troops under their command.該沉默的過程中開始在戰場上，在在場的人員，權力持有人誰尋求廢止的看法和個人的經驗，部隊根據他們的命令。

In his war memoir, Aidan Delgado describes attempts of his commanders to suppress the truth about Abu Ghraib.在他的戰爭回憶錄，艾丹德爾加多描述的企圖，他的指揮官鎮壓的真相阿布格萊布。 First his captain says the Army has nothing to hide, Abu Ghraib is just a rumor.首先，他的隊長說，軍隊已沒有什麼要隱瞞，阿布格萊布只是一個謠言。 But then the captain continues: “We don’t need to air our dirty laundry in public.但當時的隊長繼續說： “我們不需要空氣我們的臟衣服在公眾。 If you have photos that you’re not supposed to have, get rid of them.如果你有照片，您不會有，擺脫他們。 Don’t talk about this to anyone, don’t write about it to anyone back home.” In the US military, the truth is seditious.不要談論這給任何人，不寫它向任何人返回家園“ 。在美國軍事，真理是有煽動性。

Two years ago, Marine Sergeant Jimmy Massey published his riveting autobiography (written with Natasha Saulnier) in France and Spain.兩年前，海洋警長麥梅西發表了他的自傳中鉚（書面與娜塔莎索尼耶）在法國和西班牙。 How the Marine Corps - through indoctrination and intimidation - transforms a homeboy from the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina into a professional killer who murders “innocent people for his government” is the subject of Massey’s unsettling, impassioned, Jar-head raunchy, and ultimately uplifting memoir, COWBOYS FROM HELL.如何海軍陸戰隊-通過灌輸和恐嚇-變換一h o meboy從大煙山北卡羅萊納州成為一個專業的殺手誰謀殺“無辜人民為他的政府”是的主題馬西的不安，慷慨激昂，罐頭黃色笑話派，最終向上的回憶錄，來自地獄的牛仔。 (No US publisher has picked up the book. A Marine who speaks truth to power is not without honor save in his own country.) In Chapter 18, Jimmy describes a seemingly minor encounter with his captain. （沒有美國的出版者，已拿起這本書。海事誰講真理，電力也不是沒有的榮譽保存在他自己的國家。 ）在第18章，麥描述看似輕微遇到與他的隊長。 Here Massey gives us a look into the process of human denial in its early phase.馬西在這裡讓我們看的過程中的人力拒絕在其早期階段。

Massey has just participated in a checkpoint massacre of civilians.梅西剛剛參加了一個檢查站，屠殺平民。 His sense of decency, his sanity, is still in tact.他的責任感，正直，他的理智，仍是在機智。 Like any normal human being, he is distraught.像任何正常人，他是悲痛。 The carnage of the war, the imbalance of power between the biggest war machine in history and a suffering people devoid of tanks and air power - the sheer injustice of it all - begins to take its toll on Massey’s conscience.大屠殺的戰爭，失衡之間的權力最大的戰爭機器在歷史和受苦受難的人民缺乏坦克和空中力量-純粹是不公正的這一切-開始採取收費對梅西的良心。

In the wake of the horrific events of the day, his captain is cool.在之後的可怕事件的當天，他的隊長是很酷。 He walks up to Massey and asks; “Are you doing all right, Staff Sergeant?” Massey responds: “No, sir.他的各界人士多達馬西和要求; ： “你做的所有權利，上士” ？馬西回應： “主席先生，沒有。 I am not doing OK Today was a bad day.我不這樣做確定今天是糟糕的一天。 We killed a lot of innocent civilians.”我們殺了很多無辜平民“ 。

Fully of aware of the civilian carnage, his captain asserts: “No, today was a good day.”充分的認識到平民的屠殺，他的隊長斷言： “不，今天是個好日子” 。

Relatives wailing, cars destroyed, blood all over the ground, Marines celebrating, civilians dead, and “it was good day”!親屬哭，汽車被毀，血液都在地面上，海軍陸戰隊慶祝，平民死亡，和“這是個好日子” ！

The Massey incident goes beyond the mendacity of military life.該梅西事件超越了謊言的軍事生活。 It concerns the control, the dehumanization of the psyches of our troops.它涉及到控制，非人化的心理，我們的部隊。

As one Vietnam veteran put it years ago: “They kept fucking with my mind.”作為一個越戰老兵把它年前： “他媽的，他們不斷與我心目中” 。

In 1994 Jonathan Shay, staff psychiatrist in the Department of Veterans Affairs, published a pioneering work on post traumatic stress – 在1994年喬納森shay ，工作人員的精神科醫生，在退伍軍人事務部，出版了開拓性工作對創傷後應激- Achilles in Vietnam: Combat Trauma and the Undoing of Character 跟腱在越南：作戰創傷和打倒的性格 . 。 According to Shay, who recorded volumes of testimony from Vietnam veterans, commanders routinely try to efface the perceptions and the normal feelings of compassion among American troops. 據shay ，誰記錄冊的證詞，來自越南的退伍軍人，指揮官經常嘗試抹除的看法，和正常的感情，同情，其中美國部隊。 Military necessity, including the ever-present need for political propaganda, determines what is perceived, and how it is perceived, in war. 軍事必要性，其中包括不斷，目前需要的政治宣傳，決定什麼是知覺，以及它是如何知覺，在戰爭中。

It was an extremely common experience in Vietnam, Shay writes, to be told by military superiors dealing with crime and trauma: “You didn’t experience it, it never happened, and you don’t know what you know.” And it was fairly common for traumatized soldiers to say to reporters: “It didn’t happen.它是一個非常共同的經驗，在越南， shay寫，會告訴軍事上級處理犯罪和創傷： “你沒有經驗，這從來沒有發生，和你不知道什麼你知道” ，這是相當普遍，為受創傷的士兵對記者說： “這沒有發生。 And besides, they had it coming.” Shay recorded the testimony of one veteran who, in great anger, describes the pressures to alter his perceptions of collective murder.此外，他們這來了“ 。 shay記錄的證詞，一位資深誰，在偉大的憤怒，描述了壓力，改變他的看法，集體謀殺的罪名。

Ernest Hemingway’s brilliant short story, Soldier’s Home, published in 1925 after World War I, gives us insight into the reluctance of civilians to address the psychic needs of soldiers back from war.海明威的光輝短篇小說，士兵的家，出版於1925年第一次世界大戰後，使我們洞察到不願平民，以解決心理的需要，士兵回到從戰爭。

The simply told story is about a young man named Krebs who returns to his home in Oklahoma.簡單的說，故事是關於一個年輕的男子名為krebs誰回報，到他家在俄克拉何馬州。 At first Krebs does not want to talk about the war.在第一krebs並不想談論戰爭。 But soon he feels the need to speak - to his family, his neighbors and friends.但很快，他覺得有必要發言-向他的家人，他的鄰居和朋友。 But as Hemingway tells us, “Nobody wanted to hear about it.” His town did not want to learn about atrocities, and “Krebs found that to be listened to at all he had to lie.”但正如海明威告訴我們， “沒有人希望聽到關於它” ，他的城市並沒有想要了解的暴行，及“ krebs發現，要聽取所有，他不得不說謊” 。

There’s the rub.有摩擦。 His ability to assimilate into civilian life depended on his willingness to fabricate stories about the war.他有能力吸收融入平民生活，取決於他願意編造的故事，關於戰爭。 Soldiers are not only expected to lie on behalf of the military during the course of war, they are also expected to participate in homecoming rituals that preserve the civilian fantasy of war’s nobility.官兵不僅是預期的謊言，代表軍方的過程中，戰爭，他們預計也將參加在回家儀式維護平民的幻想戰爭的貴族。

In Hemingway’s story, the pressure to lie is so powerful, Krebs begins to manufacture stories about his experiences in battle - just to get along, just be able to lead a normal life.在海明威的故事，壓力，謊言是如此強大， krebs開始製造的故事，他的經驗，在戰鬥中-只要相處，只要能夠帶領過正常的生活。

Repression, however, is a major cause of mental illness and loneliness.鎮壓，不過，這是一個重要原因，精神病患者和孤獨。 Krebs morale deteriorates. krebs的士氣惡化。 He sleeps late in bed.他睡在床上晚。 He loses interest in work.他失去了興趣，工作。 He withdraws into himself.他撤回到自己。

That’s all Hemingway tells us.這是所有海明威告訴我們。 It’sa quietly told story, all the more powerful for its understatement.這是悄悄告訴的故事，所有的功能更強大，為它的輕描淡寫。

There is a connection between Hemingway’s war-informed fiction and real life.有一個之間的聯繫，海明威的戰爭小說和知情的現實生活。 As Shay notes, there is a tension between a soldier’s need to communalize shame and grief and the unwillingness of civilians to listen to troops whom they sent into battle.作為shay注意到，有一種之間的緊張關係士兵的需要公社化的恥辱和悲痛，並不願意平民，聽取他們的部隊已進入戰鬥。 One Vietnam veteran told the following story:一個越戰老兵告訴以下的故事：

WD Erhart, Vietnam veteran and author of Passing Time, never forgot the horrific episodes of his tour in Vietnam.迪士尼公司厄哈特，越戰老兵和作者通過的時間，從未忘記可怕的事件，他的旅行團在越南。 In his first autobiography, he tells a friend about his speech at a Rotary Club.在他的首本自傳，他告訴一位朋友對他的講話在扶輪社。 “I even put on a coat and tie and went to the Rotary Club. “我什至把對一件外套和領帶，前往扶輪社。 The Rotary Club, for chrissake.扶輪社，為chrissake 。 I laid it all out for ‘em. i奠定了它所有為'教統。 I told ‘em about search and destroy missions, harassment and interdiction fire, winning hearts and minds, all that stuff…Was I ever sharp that day.我說'在有關搜索和摧毀任務，騷擾和阻截火災，贏得人心，所有的東西…是我以往任何時候都尖銳的那一天。

“Each generation,” writes Chris Hedges, “discovers its own disillusionment, often at a terrible price. “每一代人” ，寫道：克里斯對沖“ ，發現自己的幻滅，往往在一個可怕的代價。 And the war in Iraq has begun to produce legions of the lost and the damned.” For our morally courageous veterans - for all of us, really, who seek forgiveness - only the truth can heal.和伊拉克戰爭已開始產生軍團的失落和該死的“為我們的道德勇氣退伍軍人-對我們所有人來說，真的，誰尋求寬恕-只有真相才能癒合。

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator, Paul Rockwell, is a writer living in the Bay Area. blackcommentator.com客戶評論員，保羅羅克韋爾，是一個作家生活在灣區。 He is also a columnist for他也是一位專欄作家 In Motion Magazine在議案雜誌 . 。 Click點擊 here這裡 to reach Mr. Rockwell.達到先生羅克韋爾。