A question of leadership?
Interesting interview on Frontline's website with the Army surgeon general:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...choomaker.html
Excerpt:
Quote:
Tell me what was going on at Fort Carson, [Colo.]
What was observed was over a period of about four to five years on Fort Carson, about 10 murders or attempted murders, very violent crimes, very tragic crimes were committed by soldiers assigned to units on Fort Carson, and there appeared to be a clustering of these horrific crimes in one particular brigade, a unit of about 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers. ...
What we found was that, in fact, about 14 soldiers were involved over this four-year period ending in 2008. ... And of the 14, 10 of them came from one single unit, a unit that had begun as the 2nd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division in Korea, had been deployed to Iraq, returned to Fort Carson -- not to Korea where it started but to Fort Carson, because it was restationed there. They then had a fairly short dwell, meaning that they remained at Fort Carson for a year or less before they were again deployed to Iraq. It was at that point that the surge took place, and their 12-month deployment was extended to 15 months before they returned to Fort Carson.
Ten of the 14 soldiers involved in these crimes on Fort Carson came from that one brigade, and six of the 10 soldiers came from one battalion of 600 or so soldiers within that brigade. And I believe that you are looking at one platoon, one smaller unit within a company, within that battalion, and that appeared to have a very close clustering of violent crimes committed by a few number of soldiers in this very large unit.