I'm reading a book right now that looks into the break down in the 1st platoon of Bravo Company that led to the 2006 rape and killing of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family. One of the perpetrators, Steven Green, expressed racist opinions from the start of the war, which were only exasperated as members of his platoon were killed. At one point he was encouraged to see a therapist:

Green told [the therapist] Marrs he was having suicidal and homicidal ideations, especially thoughts about killing Iraqi civilians. One his one-page intake sheet, Marrs noted his wanting to kill Iraqis four separate times. One entry states, "Interests: None other than killing Iraqis." She diagnosed him with Combat and Operational Stress Reactions (COSR), an Army term to describe typical and transient reactions to the stresses of warfare...As one Army journal article puts it, "Those with COSR are not referred to as 'patients,' but are described as having 'normal reactions to an abnormal event.' " Thus believing Green's psychological state to be normal, Marrs prescribed him with a small course of Seroquel, an antipsychotic drug that also treats insomnia, and recommended that he follow up with another visit...and sent him back to his unit. ^*

We all understand that anger is a natural part of the grieving process, and the combat stress unit no doubt receives lots of soldiers who express frustration and hatred toward the Iraqis, but I think I'd be concerned about any soldier who says he wants to indiscriminately kill any Iraqi. Of course we're expecting our troops to kill Iraqis. That's our job. But the Iraq War was like the Spanish-American War: The point was not conquest but to help another nation. Although in hindsight we're upset at many of our actions, being nice to the Germans or the Japanese wasn't necessary part of WWII. That's the exact opposite for Iraq. If you don't have the populace on your side, you've lost the war. And if there's a crazy fucker running around shooting at random Iraqis, it does the exact opposite of what you want.

Then again, in Marrs' defense, I don't think anyone really knew what the hell we wanted to do with Iraq.

^* Jim Frederick, Black Hearts: One Platoon's Descent into Madness in Iraq's Triangle of Death (New York: Harmony BOoks, 2010), 157-58.