Porgany's Complaint

A few weeks back I was talking to a friend, recent returnee from Iraq, a guy who'd made the very fast ride to Baghdad last spring. His first comment to me about "what was it really like?" was to this effect: "War is hell. And no amount of training prepares you for the moment when you wake up in the morning and crawl out of your tent to be greeted by the corpses of enemy soldiers."

As yesterday's battlefield became tonight's campground, such grisly encounters were unavoidable. "Clean up" came later. We train to fight; we train to be good at our particular specialties. In casualty exercises we even train with very realistic but very fake wounds. We do not train to develop a callous attitude towards death.

Lacking a ready supply of people freshly killed by trainees, you just can't train for that. Only experience can bring acceptance of some aspects of war.

This immediately brings to my mind the scene from Full Metal Jacket where the American soldiers are sitting with the corpse of an enemy. Fiction, of course, but tales of barbarism practiced on enemy corpses by both sides during the Vietnam War are not uncommon. Although the "psycho Nam Vet" exists the inflated numbers of such persons is predominantly a convenient fiction of the Left. However, numerous first hand accounts from veterans of the prolonged wars of the 20th century do bear this out: eventually the combat soldier will reach the point where dead soldiers are no longer any more disturbing or remarkable to him then burned vehicles or damaged buildings - a part of the battlefield. And unless it's a close friend, the uniform worn by said soldiers eventually no longer matters. Part of the scenery.

The Iraq war has not been long or bloody enough to achieve this result, and this is something to be thankful for. Who would want that? Hence my mixed thoughts on this story:

A soldier with Fort Carson?s 10th Special Forces Group has been charged with cowardice for allegedly refusing to do his duty in Iraq, according to a Thursday report in the Colorado Springs (Colo.) Gazette.

Special Forces interrogator Staff Sgt. Georg Porgany?s charge sheet says he showed ?cowardly conduct as a result of fear, in that he refused to perform his duties,? according to the report.

If convicted in a court-martial, the soldier faces prison time and a dishonorable discharge. He was charged Oct. 14. His first court appearance is Nov. 7 at Fort Carson.

A cowardice charge is extremely rare, military law experts told the Gazette. Army officials couldn?t say Wednesday the last time it had been filed.

Porgany, 32, said he is wrongly charged.

The soldier said he experienced a ?panic attack? after seeing the mangled body of an Iraqi man and told his superior he was heading for a ?nervous breakdown.?

After that, Porgany said he didn?t request to go on missions nor did the unit ask him to go. He told the Gazette that he asked for help but was denied the care soldiers with ?combat stress? are supposed to receive.

Instead of help, Porgany said, one of his superiors told him to ?get his head out of his ass and get with the program.?

Army officials declined the Gazette?s requests to talk about the case.

Porgany?s unit was working on Sept. 29 out of Samarra, north of Baghdad, when Porgany saw the body of an Iraqi man brought into the Army compound.

Porgany had never seen anything like that. Shortly after, he said, he began shaking, couldn?t focus and kept throwing up his food.

There's always more to every court martial then the actual charges - in many cases it's similar to busting Al Capone for tax evasion. Not to say that's what goes on here; I know absolutely nothing about this other then what I've read. And, of course, Army officials are prohibited from discussing the case. They are parties to the case and such legalities are well known to writers of lines like the one above: "Army officials declined the Gazette?s requests to talk about the case."

Probably cowardice on my part, but I'm glad I won't be on the panel.