And so the invasion of Iraq has brought us to this: a gang of US soldiers took a liking to a young girl who passed through their checkpoint every day. When she rejected their advances, they threatened her - then went to her house, murdered her family, raped her, and tried to set fire to the body. She was only 15.
And then they wonder why shit like this happens. And no, that's not a spurious link. The soldiers kidnapped and barbaricly tortured and murdered belonged to the same unit, and that incident seems to have spurred someone to come forward with evidence about the rape. I guess it must have been the question "does anyone know why they'd hate us this much?" that did it...
Robert Fisk book "The Great War for Civilisation" is full of examples like this (and much much worse). Examples that almost never get reported by the media. He states in the book that if people saw what he saw they would never ever suport war again.
ReplyDeleteWhich is why it is all of our responsibility to shine light where we know there is darkness.
But one can't help but feel powerless sometimes to change what we know to be wrong...
Quick correction, you said they were part of the same unit, but the alleged rapists are from the 502nd Infantry Regiment, the two men who were tortured and killed were part of the 101st Airbourne (the Screaming Eagles, famous for their dogged defence of Bastogne during the "battle of the Bulge" in 1944 ).
ReplyDelete(at least according to the reports you linked to)
The 502nd Infantry Regiment is part of the 101st airborne.
ReplyDeleteGoogling around, they were definitely assigned to the same unit. The Marine Times says that Steven Green, the man arrested, was assigned to "1st Platoon, Bravo Company of the 1/502nd Infantry Regiment". The dead soldiers were also from B company, and the Houston Chronicle says they were from the same platoon. Spooky coincidence - or revenge?
"I doubt if they would have missed the opportunity to present US troops in such a bad light"
ReplyDeleteA light generated by the conduct of the US troops themselves.
"As for shining a light, it was the US military who brought this to light and will prosecute the culprits."
ReplyDeleteSo Neil, what do you think the odds are that these boys will be vigorously prosecuted and incarcerated for 10-15years, same as they'd get for rape and murder back home? Or have you been following the "sentences" handed out by the US military tribunals to date?
Husky: one of them has left the army, and so is being tried in a civilian court. That at least means they will face a proper sentence if convicted. As for the rest, it's military "justice" - which where dead iraqis are concerned, isn't.
ReplyDeleteNow *that* trial will be interesting to follow..
ReplyDeleteOf course so much of the process is so sadly predictable.. 4th rate conscripts on 3rd + tour of duty are professional soldiers in, say, the way Maxim is a professional thinktank.
The US army can't and won't discipline them b/c they can't afford professional soldiers (good pay would way too far into the profits of the arms manufacturers) and it would kill morale amongst the dickweeds.. the best way to motivate these boys is to fill 'em full of righteousness and moral (read racial) superiority and any acknowledgement of serious wrongdoing would promptly blow that riff.
I heard/read the alleged rapist had a mental illness. If that is so, he probably shouldn't have been in the armed services but he also deserves a defence based on this like any other alleged rapist has. You guys should accept that.
ReplyDeleteGooner: sure - and if his lawyer is any good, it will be raised at trial.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't excuse his (presumably perfectly sane) co-conspirators, though.
this is clearly a horrible attrocity. and believe it or not, the army loathes explict, unambiguous atrocities, prefering remote control bombs.
ReplyDeleteex-pfc green will get screwed (which he deserves). bush and cheney (his enablers, and the perpetrators of infinitely worse and continuing attrocities) will never even be tried.