A link -- however tenuous -- between the two US soldiers who were abducted, tortured, and murdered in Iraq recently and the rape of an Iraqi woman and subsequent murder of her and her family is explosive. From an Iraqi's perspective, this must make the insurgents who killed the US soldiers look more like righteous avengers than anything else.
"GIs Eyed in Alleged Rape, Murders in Iraq," by Ryan Lenz - AP (Beiji, Iraq), 1 July 2006
BEIJI, Iraq - A group of American soldiers in an insurgent-riddled town allegedly noticed a young Iraqi woman when on patrol and later returned to rape her, according to U.S. officials Friday. In an apparent cover-up attempt, she and three members of her family then were killed and her body was set on fire.
Five U.S. troops are being investigated, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press....
The suspects in the killing, which took place in March, were from the same platoon as two soldiers kidnapped and killed south of Baghdad this month, said the official, who is close to the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
One soldier was arrested after admitting his role in the alleged attack on the family, the U.S. official said. The official said the rape and killings appear to have been a "crime of opportunity," noting that the soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.
One of the family members they allegedly killed was a child, said a senior Army official who also requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Some of the suspects allegedly burned the woman's body to cover up the attack, the U.S. official said.
In Baghdad, the U.S. military issued a sparse statement, saying only that Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of the 4th Infantry Division, ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged slaying of a family of four in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad.
However, the U.S. official said the soldiers were assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment. The official told the AP that the suspects were from the same platoon as two slain soldiers whose mutilated bodies were found June 19, three days after they were abducted by insurgents near Youssifiyah southwest of Baghdad.
The military has said one and possibly both of the slain soldiers were tortured and beheaded. The official said the mutilation of the slain soldiers stirred feelings of guilt and led at least one member of the platoon to reveal the rape-slaying on June 22.
According to the senior Army official, the alleged incident was first revealed by a soldier during a routine counseling-type session. The official said that soldier did not witness the incident but heard about it.
A second soldier, who also was not involved, said he overhead soldiers conspiring to commit the crimes and then later saw bloodstains on their clothes, the official said.
Before the soldier disclosed the alleged assault, senior officers had been aware of the family's death but believed it was a result of sectarian violence, the official said.
One of the five suspects has already been discharged for unspecified charges unrelated to the killings and is believed to be in the United States, two U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The others have had their weapons taken away and are confined to a U.S. base near Mahmoudiya.
The allegations of rape could generate a particularly strong backlash in Iraq, a conservative, strongly religious society in which many women will not even shake hands with men who are not close relatives.
The case is among the most serious against U.S. soldiers allegedly involved in the deaths of Iraqi civilians. At least 14 U.S. troops have been convicted....
Also see:
"Muslim Group Condemns Reports of US Rape," by Bassem Mroue - AP (Baghdad), 2 July 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - An influential Sunni organization in Iraq said Sunday that allegations U.S. soldiers raped an Iraqi woman, then killed her and her family were "a sign of shame to the American invaders."
U.S. officials have said a group of American soldiers entered the home of a Sunni family in the insurgent-ridden town of Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, raped and killed the woman, then set fire to her body and killed three of her family members in an apparent cover-up attempt.
The Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars condemned the alleged crimes and said "raping this girl then mutilating her is shameful and will remain as a sign of shame to American invaders."
The allegations threaten to stoke public anger in the wake of a series of other cases of U.S. troops accused of killing and abusing Iraqi civilians, although Iraqi media have so far paid little attention to the case.
The U.S. military has stressed it is taking the allegations seriously and a criminal investigation has been launched to determine who should stand trial.
"We can't undo anything that has happened, but we can and will hold accountable anybody found guilty of offenses," military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said in an e-mail....
"The mean behavior and terrible violations committed by the invaders show the truth of the ugly American face and shows that their claims of supporting humanity and liberation are false," said the Sunni association, a strong critic of U.S.-led efforts in Iraq.
"We call the world and all humanitarian organizations as witnesses to this ugly crime and urge them to face the American recklessness that went way too far," it added.
U.S. officials investigating the case said they knew of the deaths but thought the victims died as a result of sectarian violence. A local police official, Capt. Ihsan Abdul-Rahman, said Iraqi officials received a report March 13 alleging that American soldiers had killed the family in the Khasir Abyad district about 6 miles north of Mahmoudiya.
Added 3 July:
"Details Emerge in Alleged Army Rape, Killings," by Ellen Knickmeyer (in Baghdad) - the Washington Post, 3 July 2006, p. A15 (registration required)
BAGHDAD, July 2 -- Fifteen-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza was afraid, her mother confided in a neighbor.
As pretty as she was young, the girl had attracted the unwelcome attention of U.S. soldiers manning a checkpoint that the girl had to pass through almost daily in their village in the south-central city of Mahmudiyah, her mother told the neighbor.
Abeer told her mother again and again in her last days that the soldiers had made advances toward her, a neighbor, Omar Janabi, said this weekend, recounting a conversation he said he had with the girl's mother, Fakhriyah, on March 10.
Fakhriyah feared that the Americans might come for her daughter at night, at their home. She asked her neighbor if Abeer might sleep at his house, with the women there.
Janabi said he agreed.
Then, "I tried to reassure her, remove some of her fear," Janabi said. "I told her, the Americans would not do such a thing."...
U.S. soldiers at the scene initially ascribed the killings to Sunni Arab insurgents active in the area, the U.S. military and local residents said. That puzzled villagers, who knew that the family was Sunni, Janabi said. Other residents assumed the killings were sectarian, with Shiite Muslim militiamen as the likely culprit.
But on June 23, three months after the incident, two soldiers of the 502nd came forward to say that soldiers of the unit were responsible, a U.S. military official said last week. The U.S. military began an investigation the next day, the official said....
The rape allegation makes the Mahmudiyah case potentially incendiary in Iraq. Rape is seen as a crime smearing the honor of the family as well as the victim in conservative communities here.
Death certificates viewed Sunday at the Mahmudiyah hospital identified the victims as Fakhriyah Taha Muhsin, 34, killed by gunshots to her head; Qasim Hamza Raheem, 45, whose head was "smashed" by bullets; Hadeel Qasim Hamza, 7, Abeer's sister, shot; and Abeer, shot in the head. Abeer's body also showed burns, the death certificate noted.
Janabi said U.S. soldiers controlled the scene of the killings for several hours on March 11, telling neighbors that insurgents were responsible. The bodies of the victims were taken to Mahmudiyah hospital by March 12, according to Janabi and an official at the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
On March 13, a man identifying himself as a relative claimed the bodies for burial, the hospital official said. An hour after the man left with the bodies, U.S. soldiers came to the hospital and asked about the bodies, the hospital official said.
The next day, the hospital official said, soldiers scoured the area, trying to find the funeral for the family.
"But they did not find it, simply because the relatives did not do it, because the death includes the rape of one of the family members, which is something shameful in our tradition," the hospital official said.
"The family kept the news a secret, fearing the disgrace," he said. "They thought it was done by militias, not U.S. forces."
Reached by telephone Saturday at his home in Iskandariyah, south of Mahmudiyah, a member of the extended family would not discuss the incident.
"What is the benefit of publishing this story?" said Abeer's uncle, Bassem. "People will read about this crime. And they will forget about it the next day."
Two special correspondents in Mahmudiyah and special correspondent Bassam Sebti in Baghdad contributed to this report.
Added 4 July:
"Iraqi Demands Justice in Rape-Slay Case," by Sameer N. Yacoub - AP (Baghdad), 3 July 2006. The Iraqi referred to in the headline is that country's minister of justice. The fact that he feels the U.N. Security Council has to get involved to secure justice in this case doesn't say much for Iraqis' confidence in American officials.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's justice minister demanded Tuesday that the U.N. Security Council ensure that a group of U.S. troops are punished in the alleged rape and murder of a young Iraqi and the killing of her family, calling the attack "monstrous and inhuman."
Two female legislators also called for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to be summoned to parliament to give assurances the U.S. soldiers would be punished for the March 12 attack on the family in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad....
The Mahmoudiya attack was among the worst in a series of cases of U.S. troops accused of killing and abusing Iraqi civilians. Iraq's largest newspaper, Azzaman, said in an editorial Tuesday the rape "summarizes what has been going [on] in Iraq for the past years not only by the American occupation army, but also by some Iraqi groups."
Former Pfc. Steven D. Green appeared in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday to face murder and rape charges. At least four other U.S. soldiers still in Iraq are under investigation, and the military has stressed it taking the allegations seriously.
"If this act actually happened, it constitutes an ugly and unethical crime, monstrous and inhuman," said Justice Minister Hashim Abdul-Rahman al-Shebli al-Shebli, a Sunni Arab. "The Iraqi judiciary should be informed about this investigation which should be conducted under supervision of international and human organizations. Those involved should face justice."
"The ugliness of this crime demands a swift intervention of the U.N. Security Council to stop these violations of human rights and to condemn them so that they will not happen again," he added.
The two lawmakers, Safiya al-Suhail and Ayda al-Sharif, said condemnation was not enough.
"We demand severe punishment for the five soldiers involved," al-Sharif said. "Denouncements are not enough. If this act has taken place in another country, the world would have turned upside down."
Al-Suhail said al-Maliki should appear before parliament "to make sure investigations are taking place."
Mahmoudiya Mayor Mouayad Fadhil said Iraqi authorities have started their own investigation and that he had asked the hospital where the victims were taken for more details.
According to a federal affidavit,
and three other soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division had talked about raping the young woman, whom they first saw while working at a traffic checkpoint near her home.
On the day of the attack, the document said, Green and other soldiers drank alcohol and changed out of their uniforms to avoid detection before going to the woman's house. Green used a brown T-shirt to cover his face.
Once there, the affidavit said, Green took three members of the family — a man and a woman and a girl estimated to be 5 years old — into a bedroom. Shots were heard. Green allegedly shot the woman in the head after he and another soldier raped her, the affidavit said.
Green was honorably discharged from the Army because of a "personality disorder" before the attack came to light, the affidavit said. He is being prosecuted in federal, rather than military court because he is no longer in the Army....
An insurgent group, the Mujahedeen Army, distributed an account of the incident on an Islamist Web site. It appeared the report, which generally corresponded with details already made public, was designed to draw attention to the deaths and stir up hostility against the U.S. military.
The Azzaman newspaper expressed skepticism the soldiers would be severely punished.
"The U.S. Army will conduct an investigation and the result at best is already known. One or two U.S. soldiers will receive a 'touristic punishment' and the whole crime will be forgotten as it happened with Abu Ghraib criminals," the newspaper said, referring to the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. guards at a prison in west Baghdad.
"General Vows Full Probe of Rape-Slay Case," by Tim Whitmere - AP (Charlotte, NC), 4 July 2006
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff vowed Tuesday to get to the bottom of charges that a former solider raped and killed a young Iraqi woman and shot her family to death. Three other soldiers still in Iraq are suspected of joining in the crime and helping cover it up.
"Any such acts on the part of a U.S. servicemember, if proven to be true, are totally unacceptable. We know that in uniform, and our fellow citizens know that," Marine Gen. Peter Pace said Tuesday.
"If there are those who have done things as they have been accused of, we will get to the bottom of it. We will do the investigations, we will find out what the truth is, and, if necessary, we will take those who deserve to be taken to court so they can have their day in court," he told NBC's "Today" show.
The military had at first blamed insurgents when the four bodies were found in March inside a burned house near Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad.
But on Monday, federal prosecutors revealed the outcome of a joint military and FBI investigation: They now believe U.S. soldiers who manned a checkpoint a short distance from the home plotted the attack and tried to cover it up.
Prosecutors charged one, Steven D. Green, a 21-year-old former private who was honorably discharged this spring by the Army because of a "personality disorder." He was charged Monday with rape and four counts of murder during an appearance in a federal courtroom in Charlotte....
Added 6 July:
"'Reckless' Soldiers Should Stay Home: Iraqi PM," by Ibon Villelabeitia - Reuters (Baghdad), 6 July 2006
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister urged the U.S. military on Thursday to keep "reckless" troops from serving in Iraq in order to prevent abuses like the alleged rape and murder of a teenager and her family by U.S. soldiers in March.
Expanding on calls for an independent inquiry and a review of foreign troops' immunity from Iraqi law, Nuri al-Maliki said commanders should do a better job in preparing their soldiers.
"There needs to be a plan to educate and train soldiers, and those who are brought to serve in Iraq shouldn't bear prejudices nor be reckless toward people's honor," Maliki said....
Maliki, facing pressure from Shi'ites and Sunnis to hold Americans accountable, has slammed a U.S. occupation authority decree that grants immunity from Iraqi law for the 140,000 or so foreign troops in Iraq, saying it "emboldens" soldiers.
"I think this matter has become necessary to review and solve, either by reviewing the issue of immunity or reviewing the nature of the investigating committees," he told reporters in Baghdad, a day after he first called for a review of the law.
The rape and murder case is the fifth in a high-profile series of U.S. inquiries into killings of Iraqi civilians in recent months and has outraged Iraqis.
American commanders, keen to repair the military's tarnished image after three years of complaints from Iraqis that U.S. abuses go unpunished, pressed murder charges against 12 military personnel last month. Marines are under investigation for the killing of 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha.
Iraqis have complained of Americans' lack of cultural sensitivity -- including searching women's rooms during raids or not taking their boots off when entering. Commanders say they are improving such procedures.
Though heavily dependent on America's military muscle, Maliki faces delicate negotiations with its main ally Washington over how to regulate the presence of the U.S.-led forces in Iraq, now under a U.N. mandate that expires in December.
"Iraqi Leaders Question Troops' Immunity," by Jonathan Finer and Joshua Partlow (in Baghdad) - the Washington Post, 6 July 2006
BAGHDAD, July 5 -- Following a recent string of alleged atrocities by U.S. troops against Iraqi civilians, leaders from across Iraq's political spectrum called Wednesday for a review of the U.S.-drafted law that prevents prosecution of coalition forces in Iraqi courts.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters during a visit to Kuwait that "the immunity given to members of coalition forces encouraged them to commit such crimes in cold blood," adding, "That makes it necessary to review it."...
The dispute centers on a rule with the force of law enacted two years ago by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Known as CPA Order 17, it stipulates that coalition forces, diplomatic personnel and contractors working for coalition forces or for diplomats "shall be immune from the Iraqi legal process." But challenges to the immunity order have gained momentum, beginning with the November killing of 24 civilians in Haditha, which came to light in March when Time magazine reported the incident.
In a rare unified stance by factional leaders, members of Iraq's Kurdish and Sunni Arab political blocs endorsed Maliki's call to revisit the immunity issue.
"In the name of immunity a lot of crimes have occurred, whether it is foreign forces or the security guards they have," said Mahmoud Othman, a Kurdish lawmaker.
Alaa Makky, an official with the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni Arab political group, said his organization had long criticized the immunity policy. While U.S. forces will investigate certain "high-profile" cases, such as those in Mahmudiyah and Haditha, he said, "there are thousands of these events, really, that are vile and that never get noticed."
An Iraqi government official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named, said Maliki hoped to revise Order 17 when the U.N. resolution authorizing the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq comes up for renewal at the end of the year....
Added 7 July:
"US Calls Iraqi Rape-Murder 'Inexcusable,'" by Kim Gamel - AP (Baghdad), 6 July 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq - America's two top officials in Iraq on Thursday sought to calm Iraqi anger over allegations that U.S. soldiers were involved in the rape-murder of a girl, promising an open investigation and calling such acts "absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable."
The rare joint statement from U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and Gen. George W. Casey, the senior U.S. commander in Iraq, came as military officers investigated the apparent failures of leadership to keep a close watch on American troops....
The joint statement underscored U.S. efforts to contain the political damage that the March 12 killing of a girl and three relatives has caused among an Iraqi public increasingly weary of foreign troops.
"The alleged events of that day are absolutely inexcusable and unacceptable behavior," the statement said. "We will fully pursue all the facts in a vigorous and open process as we investigate this situation."
President Bush called the attack "a despicable crime, if true," that could color perceptions of American troops.
"These are very serious charges and what the Iraqis must understand is that we will deal with these in a very transparent, upfront way," Bush said during an interview broadcast on CNN's "Larry King Live."
Khalilzad and Casey promised a vigorous investigation and prosecution of the case and pledged to "work closely with the government of Iraq to ensure transparency as we complete the investigatory and legal processes."
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has called for an independent investigation into the attack and a review of the agreement granting U.S. forces immunity from prosecution by Iraqi courts....
The case has raised questions about adherence to procedures set for U.S. troops in Iraq, as well as discipline within the suspects' unit. The soldiers were from the 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, the same unit hit by the insurgent killings of three soldiers last month.
Spokesmen for the 101st Airborne and the Multinational Corps of Iraq refused to discuss the case on the record because of its sensitivity.
The U.S. military has strict rules for soldiers operating outside their bases, designed to ensure they are under supervision and also to protect them. All soldiers leaving their bases are supposed to be accompanied by a noncommissioned officer and travel in at least two vehicles.
The rape-murder investigation has raised questions about whether there are problems with how the military operates since soldiers allegedly left their post without someone raising questions.
U.S officials and analysts say the problem may not be the procedures but the leaders responsible for enforcing them.
"Somebody had to have known. The procedures are fine," said Tim Brown, an analyst with Globalsecurity.org, a Washington-based military think tank. "Maybe in the case of this particular unit the failure goes a lot higher, to the failure of the command to properly enforce the rules."
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is under way, maintained the procedures "that are in place are right and good." The official said the question is whether the procedures are being "followed all the time."
According to a federal affidavit, Green and at least two other soldiers drank alcohol, abandoned the checkpoint they were manning, changed clothes to avoid detection and then headed to the victims' house about 200 yards from a U.S. military camp. A fourth soldier stayed in uniform, the affidavit said.
Nearly all those steps — including drinking alcohol — are violations of regulations, U.S. officials say.
Even before the rape-murder investigation surfaced, the military was investigating the incident in which three soldiers from the same battalion were killed by insurgents near Youssifiyah. Two of those apparently were abducted and then slain, with their bodies mutilated.
The Army said it was trying to determine how the soldiers were left by themselves with a single vehicle in a known stronghold of al-Qaida in Iraq....
"Where Have We Seen Him Before?" - item in the 'In the Loop' column, by Al Kamen - the Washington Post, 7 July 2006 (registration required)
Back on Dec. 9, the Army News Service, part of the Army public affairs operation, published a story on its Web site headlined: "Coalition forces keep streets of Iraq safe." The article says soldiers search for weapons and insurgents. "The searches are thorough, yet the Soldiers still respect people's rights and property."
There's a picture of a soldier, identified as Pfc. Steven Green , about to fire his shotgun to blast a lock off the gate of an abandoned home.
The Army apparently discovered this week that this was the same Steven Green cashiered for a personality disorder and now charged with raping and killing a young Iraqi woman and killing her parents and little sister in March.
The December story is still on the Web site, but the picture has been removed and the text has been expanded to fill in the gap.
An Army spokesman said yesterday that officials removed the photograph from the story to make it easier for people to find Green's picture on the Army Web site.
A posting on the Daily Kos blog provided a cached version of the original story.
Added 9 July:
"Soldiers Charged in Iraq Rape-Murder," by Alastair Macdonald - Reuters (Baghdad), 9 July 2006
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Five U.S. soldiers were charged in a rape and multiple murder case that has outraged Iraqis, as documents obtained by Reuters on Sunday showed the rape victim was a minor aged just 14, and not over 20 as U.S. officials say.
Days after former private Steven Green was charged as a civilian in a U.S. court with rape and four murders, four serving soldiers were charged with the same offences, the U.S. military said in statement that did not name the troops.
Another soldier, apparently a sixth member of Green's former unit in the 502nd Infantry Regiment, was charged on Saturday with dereliction of duty for not reporting the crime in March.
All five were charged with conspiring with Green, who is accused by U.S. prosecutors of going with three others to a house near the checkpoint they were manning outside Mahmudiya, near Baghdad, and of killing a couple and their two daughters.
Those court documents gave the raped daughter's estimated age as 25, though U.S. military officials in Iraq say their documents have her as 20.
Her identity card and a copy of her death certificate, however, show she was just 14.
Local officials and relatives had said she was 15 or 16....
With five Americans now facing the death penalty in the case, the fact the rape victim was a minor could be a factor in sentencing in the event of any convictions. Abeer's sister Hadeel was just six when she died of "several gunshot wounds."...
Officers say generals are cracking down to try to curb harm to civilians that have turned Iraqis against the troops. One said a report submitted on Friday to the top general in Iraq should see action against Marine commanders who failed to act on evidence troops may have killed civilians at Haditha on November 19....
Added 30 July:
"I Came Over Here Because I Wanted to Kill People," by Andrew Tilghman (op ed) - the Washington Post, 30 July 2006, p. B 01 (registration required). Tilghman was an Iraq correspondent for Stars and Stripes. He gives a far more thoughtful, nuanced account of his encounters with Green in Mahmudiyah and of the environment Green was serving in than I can convey through these excerpts. Click through to the original article to read more.
...Over a mess-tent dinner of turkey cutlets, the bony-faced 21-year-old private from West Texas looked right at me as he talked about killing Iraqis with casual indifference. It was February, and we were at his small patrol base about 20 miles south of Baghdad. "The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be. I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.' "
He shrugged.
"I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing," he went on. "Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza.' "
At the time, the soldier's matter-of-fact manner struck me chiefly as a rare example of honesty. I was on a nine-month assignment as an embedded reporter in Iraq, spending much of my time with grunts like him -- mostly young (and immature) small-town kids who sign up for a job as killers, lured by some gut-level desire for excitement and adventure. This was not the first group I had run into that was full of young men who shared a dark sense of humor and were clearly desensitized to death. I thought this soldier was just one of the exceptions who wasn't afraid to say what he really thought, a frank and reflective kid, a sort of Holden Caulfield in a war zone.
But the private was Steven D. Green....
When I met Green, I knew nothing about his background -- his troubled youth and family life, his apparent problems with drugs and alcohol, his petty criminal record. I just saw and heard a blunt-talking kid. Now that I know the charges against Green, his words take on an utterly different context for me. But when I met him then, his comments didn't seem nearly as chilling as they do now.
Maybe, in part, that's because we were talking in Mahmudiyah. If there's one place where a soldier might succumb to what the military calls "combat stress," it's this town where Green's unit was posted on the edge of the so-called Triangle of Death, for the last three years a bloody center of the Sunni-led insurgency. Mahmudiyah is a deadly patch of earth that inspires such fear, foreboding and uneasiness that my most prominent memory of the three weeks I spent there was the unrelenting knot it caused in my stomach....
Even in my brief stay there, I repeatedly encountered terrifying attacks. One night, about a mile from Green's base, a roadside bomb exploded alongside the vehicle I was riding in, unleashing a deafening crack and a ball of fire....
A few days later, I was standing outside chatting with an officer about the long-term legacy of the Vietnam War when a rocket came whistling down and struck the base's south wall. A couple of days after that, a mortar round blew up a tent about 20 feet from the visitors' tent that I called home.
My experience, however, was nothing compared with that of Green and the other young men of his Bravo company who spent months in the Triangle of Death....
When [Green] said he was inured to death and killing, it seemed to me -- in that place and at that time -- a reasonable thing to say. While in Iraq, I also saw people bleed and die. And there was something unspeakably underwhelming about it. It's not a Hollywood action movie -- there are no rapid edits, no adrenaline-pumping soundtracks, no logical narratives that help make sense of it. Bits of lead fly through the air, put holes in people and their bodily fluids leak out and they die. Those who knew them mourn and move on.
But no level of combat stress is an excuse for the kind of brutal acts Green allegedly committed. I suppose I will always look back on our conversations in Mahmudiyah and wonder: Just what did he mean?
It would not be not fair or accurate to look at Green as representative of US military personnel serving in Iraq or anywhere else. The vast majority of Americans in uniform conduct themselves honorably, responsibly, and decently. But it is fair to worry that Iraqis will remember Green as 'the typical American soldier,' regardless of how unfair or inaccurate it is to do so.
The soldier of the US Army promises under oath to "protect the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, both foreign and domestic"
Terrorstorm brings that oath home
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5948263607579389947
Posted by: Sgt. H. Rock | 29 August 2006 at 05:20 PM
Dies ist ein großer Ort. Ich möchte hier noch einmal.
Posted by: fahrrad | 06 March 2009 at 10:01 PM