Another Soldier Abuse Problem

This Article talks about some horid cases of abuse by soldiers:

The defence ministry says it has no knowledge of a United Nations report detailing sexual attacks on minors by South African soldiers stationed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). There have been allegations of 50 cases of sexual attacks on minors carried out by Monuc, the United Nations mission to the DRC, in Bunia in the north-east of the country over the past year.

Think we'll hear as much about this as Abu Ghraib? Of course two wrongs in no way makes a right. The problem in both cases probably stems from the tendancy of power to corrupt. Give a man a gun and the authority to do violence and he is likely to misuse that power. The only cure for this is discipline. Regular U.S. Military personnel are amoung the most disciplined in the world. As such we can place greater trust in them not to abuse their power. Our guard and reserve units are less disciplined, and therefore should be less trusted. That is one reason why I have argued that only regular military units should be guarding military prisons. The armed forces of many countries are even less discipined than our reserves and guard forces. This is one reason we should not be overly excited about 'U.N. forces' or internationalizing our military commitments.