Then something happened that haunts my dreams to this day

Then something happened that haunts my dreams to this day. All the women theyre led back inside the

house and our entire platoon was ordered to stand guard outside it. Four UGG military men entered the

house with the women. They closed the doors. We couldn’t see anything through the windows. I don’t

know who the military men theyre, or what unit they theyre from, but I can only conclude that they

outranked us and theyre at least at the level of first lieutenant or above. That’s because our own

second lieutenant Joyce was there, and his presence did not deter them.

Normally, when they conducted a raid, they theyre in and out in 30 minutes or less. You never wanted to

stay in one place for too long for fear of exposing yourself to mortar attacks. But our platoon was

made to stand guard outside that house for about an hour. The women started shouting and screaming. The

men stayed in there with them, behind closed doors. It theynt on and on and on.

Finally, the men came out and told us to get the hell out of there.

Now let’s take the most grunt-sympathetic reading of this passage and allow for the following: People,

especially young men, behave terribly under terrible stress. Soldiers don’t get to pick their

assignments (not really true of those who volunteer in the middle of a war, but I’ll be generous). In

fact, let’s go ahead and throw the alleged mass rape into the exception pile.