I am a veteran of the Army and spent seven years on active duty. I enlisted in October of 1990 during Operation Desert Shield, which would become Desert Storm a few months later. Looking back we all know that the war was short, but at the time the conventional wisdom was that this would be a long protracted ground war. The word "quagmire" was frequently heard and the comparison to Vietnam was used to make this point. My family has a long history of military service starting with the Civil War in which my great, great, great grandfather served with the 67th Ohio Infantry. My grandfathers served in World War 2 and Korea respectively and my father served in Vietnam, so I saw serving in this war as the right thing to do. As fate would have it, the war ended before I finished airborne school and I ended up unloading airplanes returning from the war at Fort Bragg before I was assigned to my unit. I met many other soldiers in basic training and during my time on active duty that had enlisted for the same reason that I did, to serve my country when I was needed in a time of war. Sure, the war is preventing some from joining the military, but most Americans will serve when called to do so. I believe that there is another reason young Americans are reluctant to serve in the Army and Marine Corps and it is the fact that we are seeing more and more soldiers being second guessed and prosecuted for decisions that they are making while engaged in combat. Currently a young Marine Lieutenant is facing a court martial for killing two insurgents in the Sunni triangle area of Iraq during a combat mission. Incredibly, the Marine Corps is charging him with murder. The incident was initially investigated shortly after it took place and the lieutenant was cleared of any wronging. Charges were not brought against him until three months after he returned from his tour of duty in Iraq. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. An Army Lieutenant Colonel was charged with criminal assault after he fired a rifle near an insurgent during a battlefield interrogation. The terrorist ended up giving information that prevented a roadside ambush on American forces and led to the location of more insurgents, weapons and explosives. These cases show an alarming trend in the military and set a most dangerous precedent. Yes, we should have higher standards for our military, but the standards should not be unreachable. Admittedly, some soldiers need to be prosecuted for their actions during a war. The prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib is a perfect example of where a military court martial is warranted. But, we need to think long and hard before we charge soldiers for actions taken in combat operations that save the lives of American service members and Iraqi civilians.

Who can blame young Americans for being apprehensive to join a branch of the armed forces that would prosecute its own combat troops during a war? With the recent incident of an Italian journalist being injured and her bodyguard accidentally killed by American troops who fired on their car while it sped toward a checkpoint in Baghdad, we can be assured of more American soldiers being prosecuted for a split second decision being made in a combat zone. Why would a young man or woman enlist in the military and sacrifice so much when they could be second guessed by someone thousands of miles away sitting in an office in the pentagon? In a time when our country needs our military the most, we should be extremely cautious of the message that we are sending with these incidents. We owe our freedom to men and women that have served this country in the armed forces. We also owe them the benefit of the doubt as well.

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