The Masters and Servants of War
05/27/2016 02:15 pm ET | Updated 7 hours ago
Cilla McCain
Some of the most poetic, prophetic, and truthful words ever written about war can be found in the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s Masters of War. It sums up the differences between the people who fight our wars with the people who receive the untold benefits. As I write this post, the song swirls in my mind with incessant ruthlessness. I suppose I just know too many victims to be able to ignore this imbalance of power.
"War is a spectacle of killing, horror, injury, and death."
This is what criminal defense attorney Colby Vokey said during a recent conversation - and he should know. As a retired Lt. Colonel from the Marine Corps, he has been at the forefront of military justice cases that have gone down in the annals of history. One such case was that of Omar Khadr, a 15-year-old Canadian national who was arrested and held at Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo) for years. Khadr, the youngest prisoner on the infamous island, was tortured mercilessly before he eventually confessed to killing an American soldier. As Khadr’s lead attorney, Vokey recounted the abuse on NPR. His description of Khadr being chained to a floor in a stress position that caused him to fall over repeatedly, is heart wrenching. After many hours of this, the boy urinated on himself. His guards squirted Pine-Sol on the ground and used Khadr as a human mop before walking away and leaving him in the mixture of his own urine and Pine-Sol. I know there will be some people who will read this and say “So what? He’s a terrorist.” But think about this; how believable is his confession when it was made under torturous conditions?
This incident, along with countless other military justice situations, including the trials following the Haditha Massacre, are characterized as “shams” by Vokey and prompted him to retire. Imagine that - a combat seasoned Marine with 20-years under his belt (not to mention being the Chief of all Corps defense attorneys of the Western United States) left the Corps he loved rather than continue to be part of a system he felt was ethically compromised. Today, he spends the majority of his career defending service members in deep trouble with the military and facing a public who only wants them to be locked up and forgotten. I normally advocate for bereaved military families, but knowing Colby Vokey has broadened my view to other types of victims.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cilla-mccain/the-masters-and-servants-_b_10164870.html
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15783244
http://www.law.uchicago.edu/clinics/mandel/mental/combat