A Better Use For Ft. Huachuca : AZ IMC

U.S. troops WILL be returning. Will we be ready for them? It is all too apparent that these soldiers, having committed atrocities world-wide, will be unfit for civil society unless they undergo a lengthy rehabilitation process. I propose that Fort Huachuca be used for this purpose.

This rehabilitation, or 're-education', will by neccessity have to be conducted in secure facilities; both for the protection of civilians, and for the safety of the troops themselves. Happily, one of the very bases where they were trained to be killers can easily be used to confine them until they are ready to become productive members of society. It is highly desirable that only those bases that are far removed from population centers be used. Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona would be doubly good; the barbaric behavior once taught there would be un-taught in the same settings, thus reinforcing the lessons.

Having shot, bombed, beaten and sexually abused civilians, contact with non-military personel must be extremely limited for the first six months or so of their internment. Their progress toward rehabilitation must be carefully monitored by psychiatric workers, and only those who show demonstrable, increasing levels of responsibility toward society will be allowed limited contact with non-military personel. Due to the extremely high incidence of spousal abuse/murder among the returnees, conjugal visits should be prohibited for the first year.

For the first few months, their re-education must be the simple rules of good manners:
You don't shoot people.
You don't bomb people.
You don't beat people.
It is never OK to sexually abuse people.
No means No.
Role-playing will be of some use in this re-education, but aversion therapy will also prove useful.

The returning soldiers should be issued civilian clothes with no ensignia of rank, and all their government issued clothing should be burned in a ritualistic public manner to stress a complete break with their dark and bloody past.

Staffing in the re-education centers must be by social workers, not prison guards; the social workers should also dress in ordinary street clothes with only a small name tag to differentiate them from the general populace. No matter their understandable revulsion at the enormity of the crimes committed by the returning soldiers; the staff should avoid calling them names like "war criminals", "baby killers" and "scum".

As their re-education progresses, the better behaved internees should be allowed short, heavily supervised visits to Sierra Vista. Here they should demonstrate their new behavior by (for example) purchasing a cup of coffee without pointing a rifle, and asking directions without sexually abusing anyone. As they become more suited to dealing with humans, the returnees may be allowed to visit Tucson and Phoenix, again heavily supervised. Until their re-education is complete, no detainee should be allowed entry to Bisbee.

Rehabilitation and re-education will be of little effect without a large element of redemption; the returning soldiers should be encouraged to knit and sew clothing for their victims world-wide; and to write letters of apology to the peoples they have oppressed, raped and murdered. Any returnee that does not show tangible atonement should not be punished in any way, but the returnee should also not be released until such atonment is demonstrated.

Of course, some of the returning soldiers will be so inurred to committing violent acts that their rehabilitation will take years, or even decades! But we must never loose hope that even the most depraved G.I. can be turned from evil.

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