Hardness in a Gentle World...

The verdict came down a few days ago, and the soldiers playing war games in Afghanistan, shooting unarmed civilians for the twisted fun of it are going to jail. A good thing. Despite the fact that a better idea might have been to send them into very serious counselling, to see what had driven them to such heartlessness. Combat fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or watching one of their own friends get shot or tortured, maybe. Those things often play a part. Eligible for parole in around 10 years, a striking detail of the verdict.
 
Now this. Another young American, put away at age 15 for a shooting spree at his local school, after being abused for months by cruel and indecent peers, superficial burns, scars and bruises for this unresponsive teenaged outcast. Too shy for their liking, not enough cash on him either for a proper rip-off, but worthy of a good thrashing on his way home on a regular basis, and the solid shaft of sexual abuse to top the long list. For a while, he coped with the abuse, then one day, coolly rounded up one of dad's firearms, and decided to bring his own brand of justice to the schoolyard. Momentarily insane, but one-too-many bum-fucks. He got a life sentence, with no chance of parole for 50 years. His old man told the story on the BBC's Outlook program this week. His son will be 65 years old before he even gets a chance to see the outside again. His dad, in his fifties now, will be dead by then.
 
Soldiers have it tough, really tough. They can snap, like all of us might snap in similar circumstances. But it seems a lot to expect from a fringe 15-year-old, that he, with no military stress and disaster training, would cope with physical, and even sexual abuse, for months, and still keep a cool head. The verdicts are cast, in both case the result of a lengthy judicial process. But the sentences seem mismatched, somehow.
 
Denis Guiet