[LEMONS] 5.13.2004
Lynndie England, Meet Breaker Morant
If you encounter any BoersYou really must not loot 'em!
And if you wish to leave these shores,
For pity's sake, DON'T SHOOT 'EM!! -- Harry "Breaker" Morant
At the turn of the last century, England was struggling with Empire, and engaged in a vicious war of occupation in South Africa with the Boers. The roots of the Boer War date back to the discovery of gold in the Transvaal in 1886, when British settlers began moving into this Boer area en masse. By 1899, war erupted between the British and the Boers. It was an ugly guerilla affair. Lord Kitchener was brought in from India to crush the Boers, and he subsequently introduced a scorched earth policy, burning crops and slaughtering livestock across the Transvaal. He also introduced the world to concentration camps, where British rounded up the Boer population to prevent them from supplying Boer commandos1. As with all such camps, disease and death were daily companions. It was, in many respects, the first modern war, a precursor to both World Wars, Vietnam, and the Soviet war in Afghanistan.
British troops--city boys--were ill-prepared to fight in the bush2. As a result, England relied heavily on irregular units of Australian horsemen--carbineers--to take the fight to the Boer Commandos. These Bushveldt Carbineers essentially fought commando style, spending weeks living rough in the bush on horseback, guerilla fighting. They were highly effective.
Harry "Breaker" Morant--an Aussie version of a cowboy poet--led such a squad of carbineers in South Africa. Among other things, the Bushveldt Carbineers took a take-no-prisoners approach to fighting Boers. This policy, the carbineers claimed and much evidence supports, came to directly from their English superiors. It flowed down the chain of command, so they thought, from Kitchener himself. Nothing was in writing.
But back home in England, the public grew increasingly outraged by the atrocities going on in South Africa, and an anti-war movement began in earnest. Meanwhile, the Boers were refusing to negotiate, largely due to what they saw as criminal behavior on the side of the British. Something had to be done. Enter Breaker Morant.
Morant and his men executed Boer prisoners, a clear war crime. They were subsequently prosecuted, and all but one of the Australian troops were executed by a firing squad. In their defense, they claimed to only be following orders. Kitchener testified that no such orders existed3. But nothing was clear-cut. There was no clear policy. It was nebulous.
The saga is well-documented in the classic book Scapegoats of the Empire by Lt. George Witton, the only Australian not be executed in the affair. His book was subsequently made into the film Breaker Morant. Witton made the case that the seven Bushveldt Carbineers--four English and three Australian--were made to pay for the sins of an entire empire. Made to pay for a vague policy that originated at the top, yet was executed by people at the bottom.
The Breaker Morant story bears a striking resemblance to the current Abu Ghraib fiasco. I can't excuse what guards at Abu Ghraib did. They carried out sick, shocking acts that are should be prosecuted for the war crimes that they are. But are the guards of Abu Ghraib the new scapegoats of our American Empire?
I believe in the military, and that the overwhelming majority of our soldiers are good, idealistic, people who genuinely want to create a safer world for Americans, and a more democratic, socially responsible one for Iraqis. Too often, however, throughout history the flow of responsibility mirrors the flow of policy: from top down. They should have an inverse relationship. Privates should not be made to pay for the mistakes of those who create the policies they carry out, be those policies clear or implied. As we move forward with Abu Ghraib, we should remember Breaker Morant as an instructive, as well as cautionary, tale.
notes:
1. The word "commando" dates back to these Boer fighting units.
2. The lack of bush skills exhibited by his troops so alarmed Baden Powell, hero of the seige at Mafeking, that he came back home and established the Boy Scouts.
3. New scholarship, as well as several historical examples, indicates that he lied.
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