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July 10, 2006

Four US soldiers charged in Iraq rape-murder (Updated)

Topics: Iraq

Three U.S. soldiers were charged with the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager and her family, bringing to four the number of Americans accused of the four deaths in March (note that even in a case that may turn out to be true, the MSM still can't get it right - the AP reported on July 4 in bold headlines, "Former U.S. Marine Accused of Rape, Killings," which of course was wrong. They're just a little too damned quick to blame my Marine Corp, thanks to Representative John "Cold Blooded Murder" Murtha's diatribes of lies about Marines at Haditha).

A fourth soldier was charged on Saturday with dereliction of duty for failing to report the case.

Last week a fifth soldier, Steven Green, who has now left the army, was charged with rape and murder in a U.S. civilian court over the killings at Mahmudiya, near Baghdad.

If these charges turn out to be true, the soldiers deserve the maximum penalty, and then a whole lot more. A soldier "losing it" on issues that may be related to combat stress is one thing, but I find it hard to believe that rape could even come close to falling into a stress-related act (Except for the fact that the soldiers accused in the rape and killings are from the same platoon as two soldiers whose mutilated bodies were found June 19, three days after they were abducted by insurgents near Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad). Add the fact that the victim was 14 years-old, and then on top of that, murder of not only the rape victim but also the entire family - including a 5 year-old little girl, and that according to documents, they planned it - I call that way outside the realm of possibility of being anywhere close to being related to combat stress. Especially, in the light of this:

According to an 11-page federal affidavit, Green and three other soldiers from Fort Campbell, Ky.-based 101st Airborne Division had talked about raping the young woman, whom they spotted while working at the checkpoint and who lived nearby. The document said Green and other soldiers drank alcohol, then changed out of their uniforms to avoid detection before going to the woman's house.

Once there, the affidavit said, Green took three members of the family -- an adult male and female, and a girl estimated to be 5 years old -- into a bedroom, after which shots were heard from inside.

"Green came to the bedroom door and told everyone, 'I just killed them. All are dead,'" the affidavit said.

And as Harry points out in the Forum, other then the soldier that has the personality disorder (I'm no psychologist so have no idea what problems that may or may not present), one has to question where the unit's leadership was on this? Apparently the crime was "discovered" during stress counseling after two other members of their platoon were captured at a checkpoint and beheaded by insurgents. By then the loony Green was already out of the service and back in the states.

Posted by Richard at July 10, 2006 2:12 AM

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