Commanders Beware

<p>In the near future a battalion commander and a military contractor officer representative are sitting at a military joint article 32 investigative hearing in Baghdad facing Uniform Code of Military Justice charges relating to a violation of the law of war. The charges concern the unlawful killing of 12 Iraqi civilians by civilian contractors. What is unique is that the two military officers are facing charges relating to their failure to ensure that the civilian contractors employed by the Department of Defense and under the command and control of the military officers abided by the law of war while operating in Iraq. Is this hypothetical scenario impossible or has the inclusion of contractors into the Department of Defense's Total Force and recent legislative efforts to place them under the disciplinary control of the military resulted in an expansion of the doctrine of command responsibility for war crimes?</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>