What a Country Owes Its Soldiers

Behind politicians’ praise of soldiers’ sacrifice is a troubling willingness to deny them training and equipment, order them to commit crimes, and deploy them to illegal wars. Saira Mohamed unearths the laws demanding protections for soldiers and explains why we ignore them. But law and mindsets can change, making for a better military—and country.

A clarion call to recognize soldiers’ rights, arguing that volunteering to fight and die for one’s country does not mean consenting to exploitation in the process. American leaders endlessly profess their admiration for military service members. But these effusive declarations hardly comport with reality. Soldiers receive shoddy equipment and inadequate medical care; they are ordered to commit crimes and deployed to illegal wars. Such treatment is rarely recognized for what it is: a violation of the duty owed to soldiers by their government. When American service members are injured or killed during training, for example, they and their families are barred from suing the military for negligence or malfeasance. And when the torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib came to light, the subsequent proceedings focused just on low-ranking perpetrators. The psychological harm done to the soldiers themselves by commanders who ordered them to commit torture in the first place went unacknowledged. Examining statutes, treaties, court cases, and congressional hearings, Saira Mohamed shows how the law encourages the treatment of soldiers as mere instruments, to be used and abused however the government wishes. She also unearths overlooked laws that point in the other direction, suggesting the possibility of robust protections for service members. Paradoxically, these get ignored in part because of the popular adulation of the military—the vision of service members as heroes who selflessly endure unlimited sacrifice. The all-volunteer nature of the force also promotes the misguided notion that soldiers have willingly accepted whatever mistreatment they might experience. What a Country Owes Its Soldiers shows how laws and mindsets can change, enabling genuine respect for soldiers’ humanity. Acknowledging their rights can transform our understanding of those who fight America’s wars, and of American warmaking itself.