History's Best-Behaved Military

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History's Best-Behaved Military

August 3, 2007 -- THE media love to trash our troops. Every crime alleged to have been committed by a soldier or Marine in Iraq is headlined until it seems that those in uniform are so busy with atrocities they haven't got time to fight.

No accusation is too preposterous for "respected" media outlets to feature, and the left-wing press convicts our troops long before they see a courtroom. Our service members are portrayed (by those who never served) as a sadistic rabble.
But when you look at the facts - the hard numbers - a very different picture emerges.
While crimes committed by our troops can't be condoned (and they certainly aren't), official crime statistics make it clear that we have the best-behaved military in history - one that's vastly more law-abiding than our general population.

The here-at-home numbers are readily available from public sources. So let's compare some domestic crime rates with the misdeeds of those vicious storm-troopers of ours.
In the 19-month period - over a year and a half - from Jan. 1, 2006 until the morning you read this, misbehavior by our troops resulted in a total of 59 scheduled court-martials in Iraq - 21 of them general court-martials, which are reserved for the most-serious crimes (murder, rape, robbery, assault, arson and so forth). The other 38 were special court-martials, invoked for lesser offenses, such as disciplinary infractions or petty theft.

OK: 59 trials in 19 months, among an average troop population of almost 140,000. Compare that to civilian crime statistics back home, and it's clear that any of us would welcome the chance to live among such model citizens - even though our troops are overwhelmingly within the age window where criminal behavior is most frequent.
Start with a city that Money magazine rated as "one of the 10 best places to live" in the United States: Ann Arbor, Mich. Home to a great university, the town has a population of about 113,300 - about 20,000 lower than our pre-surge troop numbers in Iraq.
In 2005 (the last year for which statistics are available), that ideal place to live recorded 1,476 crimes that, if committed by a soldier, would have required a general court-martial - plus a further 2,282 thefts and similar infractions that, depending on the details, would have been handled by either a general or a special court-martial.

Twelve months in Ann Arbor, 3,758 court-martial-equivalent trials. If all the crimes had been taken to court, which one doubts. Nineteen months in Iraq, under the complex stresses of combat? Fifty-nine court-martials. Guess that bastion of ethical liberalism in Michigan needs to go through basic training.

But let's give peace a chance: The most dogmatically left-wing city in the United States is undoubtedly (the People's Republic of) Santa Cruz, Calif. With a population of some 55,000 - about a third of our current troop numbers in Iraq - Santa Cruz, where the Age of Aquarius reigns, had 503 violent crimes in 2004 (the latest statistics available) and a total of 3,665 crimes that would qualify for court-martials.

Extrapolate those numbers to match our current troop strength, and you'd have a requirement for more than 10,000 court-martial equivalents. If Santa Cruz were as serious about punishing its criminals as our military is . . .

The military doesn't do warnings and probation. If a soldier does the crime, he or she will do the time or pay the other relevant penalty - court-martials directly reflect the number of crimes committed. That means that our troops in a combat zone have had less than 1 percent of the crime rate in Santa Cruz - whose City Council in 2003 was proud to be the first in the United States to adopt a resolution denouncing the war in Iraq.

Nor are these hotbeds of peace, love and shirked responsibility alone in being criminal empires compared to the good order prevailing in our military. Take a genuinely decent American city, Lynchburg, Va., with a strong religious tradition, 11 colleges, universities and technical schools and a population in 2006 of 67,720 (about half the pre-surge number of troops in Iraq).

In 2005, Lynchburg suffered 857 criminal acts that would've demanded general court-martials in the military and a further 1,805 thefts, many of which would have resulted in special court-martials.

Yet Lynchburg is particularly well-behaved. The stats for many cities are far worse.
Now set those facts against the hypocrisy of so many in the media toward our men and women in uniform. Did any of the reporters wailing about the deplorable behavior of our troops in a half-dozen incidents over four years bother to put those crimes into perspective?

Our troops are performing remarkably well under difficult conditions, and our military does a solid job of screening out sociopaths. But, inevitably, some slip through (the private-for-life who recently conned The New Republic might qualify). And it's the one scumbag among 10,000 honorable men and women in uniform who gets the press attention.

Of course, we rightly demand model standards of behavior from our troops, as we do from law-enforcement agents and officers. And today's U.S. armed forces deliver, taking good order and discipline very seriously. We all should be proud of how selflessly and honorably our troops have served as the jackals on the home tear at the military's carcass.

I learned an important lesson myself in digging out these statistics: I knew, of course, how decent our troops are. I served with them for almost 22 years (and testified at two court-martials in two decades). But on future trips to California - my favorite foreign country - I'll be sure to give Santa Cruz a wide berth.
I'd hate to be the victim of an atrocity.

Ralph Peters is the author of the new book "Wars of Blood and Faith: The Conflicts That Will Shape the 21st Century."

TROOPS & CRIMES | By RALPH PETERS | Opinions | Scott Stringer | Adam Brodsky

Originally Posted by a comment

This article is BS. Nice try. Maybe the author should talk more about facts and number rather than his flawed and sick conclusion. But doing that will prove him wrong.

He's making it look like the military is actually serious about punishing those who committed crimes. He should check the headlines, some marine just got accused of lying, trying to cover up, etc, and was involved in the unit that killed some Iraqis.

Miraculously, his punishment demoting of rank and jail time which is exactly equivalent to the time he was in "custody", so because of that no jail time.
What a nice punishment, demoting of rank