In November 2001, motivated by a grab-bag of ideals, I enlisted in the military and took a position as a Counterintelligence Agent. Soon after, I left for basic combat training and later served in Afghanistan, for which I was awarded with two Bronze Star Medals. I've been fortunate to garner valuable lessons from my experiences. However, on that first day of basic, with the platoon assembled in a horseshoe configuration inside a sweltering third-floor bay, I had a palpable sense of trepidation. The stereotypically crusty drill sergeant paced the middle of the floor and barked out orders, which he expected us to execute without question. Implied, however, was that he would always put us in a position to successfully execute those orders. That was the bargain that helped maintain order. A few months later, in a memorandum to President Bush, now Attorney General Alberto Gonzales outlined the rationale for not applying prisoner of war status to Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. Laid out in succinct, neatly bulleted pros and cons, Mr. Gonzales argued the Geneva Convention's language, such as the ban on "inhuman treatment,” was too ambiguous and cumbersome to follow. On the con side, one bullet casually cast aside the notion that the decision could "undermine U.S. military culture” regarding standards of conduct in combat. The revelation that five American soldiers are under investigation for allegedly raping and then killing an Iraqi woman, her child, husband and brother-in-law, brought the month's news from Iraq to a stunning, sordid end. It was the fourth murder investigation announced by the military in June; including thirty-three civilian deaths of which American soldiers are the alleged perpetrators. Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki stated that violence against civilians at the hands of Americans was a "regular occurrence.” In the Gonzales memorandum, a foundation was laid to systematically dehumanize our enemies. Since that time, whether it was secret CIA prisons, the abuses at Abu Ghraib or tales of abuse at Guantonomo Bay, the administration has fostered a culture of lawlessness that has now reached its logical, sad conclusion. The president has continuously placed American soldiers, folks that have sacrificed immensely for our nation's security, in a position to fail despite their best efforts. The egregious and utterly naïve mistakes in the planning, selling and execution of the war, compounded by the hyper macho posturing, has left our soldiers in an untenable position. Over-extended, unable to discern Iraqi citizens from insurgents and refereeing sectarian violence while assiduously scanning roads for IEDs, the soldiers' mere presence propagates continued attacks. Is it remotely surprising that more and more soldiers are responding poorly to the strain? The president has seemingly never understood that shifting mission rationales, not affording enemy combatants POW status and supporting torture have provided an institutional framework within which individual misdeeds would flourish. The president stubbornly clings to the ‘few bad apples' notion rather than re-examining the circumstances in which he placed our soldiers. But unlike the president, individual soldiers suffer meaningful consequences for their poor decisions.