Atrocities in a time of war are going to be committed regardless of how far a civilization advances. Man is a flawed being, and conflict will inevitably bring out the most beautiful sentiments of peace and tranquility as well as the lowest denominator of what passes for humanity.

In the latest of the wrongs against mankind committed during a time of strife comes the alleged actions of a squad in the U.S. Army.

These soldiers were serving in Afghanistan and out of boredom, dementia or God knows what, they decided to murder what appears to be innocent Afghanis.

This does not even appear to be murder with any war-like purpose in mind, no, this appears — from the images of the grisly photos — to have been nothing short of sadistic madmen; psychopaths killing out of hatred and a desire to revel in their own inflated sense of worth or power.

Though not all of the photos are clearly associated with the men in question, the fact they took the photos and distributed them amongst other soldiers was highly disrespectful of the dead and is by no means the type of actions anyone in the U.S. military should be participating in.

Every news source, blogger and informed person across the nation with a shred of humanity has given their two cents on this issue, and the indignation is well-documented on the Internet at every turn.

What is gaining less attention is the means by which to prevent further incidents such as this; the possible preventative measures that need to be in place or practices that require reassessment.

Though none of the current ISD Editorial Board has served in the military or is extremely familiar with the intricacies of military evaluations, we still feel the need to comment on how soldiers with the sort of mentality that would allow them to commit crimes such as those alleged could have been put into war zones in the first place.

We believe these events should be the eye-opener that makes the military evaluate its psychological evaluation procedures before, during and after release from combat situations.

Post-traumatic stress disorder has plagued soldiers and citizens alike for years, and the tragic effect it has upon people and their subsequent treatment has received far too little attention.

The men in question in the crimes in Afghanistan — as well as Abu Ghraib prison and other locations in Iraq or even back to Vietnam events — might have been suffering from psychological derangement due to the combat situations they had to live with every day.

It isn’t as if the military would negligently allow psychologically unbalanced candidates for military service in just because they need warm bodies, right?

Assuming the soldiers’ desire for hatred surfaced after arriving in a war zone, perhaps the need for more regular psychological evaluations need to be instigated. Even if it is not something that appears feasible due to the nature of a combat situation, something needs to be done to help ensure incidents such as this and those of the past are put to an end as soon as possible.

The damage these crimes cause to international relations, as well as the faith of the American people in the military and our government, is far too important to deny that some new measures must be put in place to stop the murder of innocents by those purporting to be their saviors.