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Mahmoudiya: An Atrocity In Our Names
I suspect everyone has a specific event from the Iraq war that stands out in their minds. For some, perhaps it’s Haditha; for others, maybe it’s Abu Ghraib. There were plenty to choose from, but time and further information have placed many of those incidents into context. As terrible as those stories were (and are), they have always been a part of war, and they serve as the ultimate reminder of why it should always be the last option.
But there was one crime that seared my soul so deeply, I was never able to contextualize it, or even write about it coherently, though I did try: Mahmoudiya.
“You probably think I’m a monster.”
That’s what FBI agents said former U.S. soldier Steven Green told them nearly three years ago about accusations that he had raped a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killed her and her family.
Green was found guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Paducah of the crimes and could face the death penalty.
Yes. I think he’s a monster. Even if Mahmoudiya was a small town in the United States, I’d still think so.
But it’s not.
Instead, it’s a town in Iraq… and it was in Mahmoudiya that ex-PFC Green, who was there on behalf of our country, committed an atrocity that cannot, and must not, be excused.
For me, there are crimes for which the death penalty is the correct outcome. This is one of them.
I’ve written more, here.
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18 Responses to “Mahmoudiya: An Atrocity In Our Names”
“……committed an atrocity that cannot, and must not, be excused.”
Is someone trying to excuse his actions?
Jwest:
“Is someone trying to excuse his actions?”
Have you ever listened to Michael Savage?
“Have you ever listened to Michael Savage?”
What????
jwest — of course they are. The defense, for starters Army Times:
And there are bloggers as well who are arguing against the death penalty on this. That can't be a surprise to you.
PM,
You’re complaining that his defense attorney is arguing against the death penalty?
I would have thought you would be upset if his lawyer didn’t try to defend him any way possible.
As far as certain website that are against the death penalty, these liberal groups have been active for decades and will never change, no matter how heinous the crime. Just ask Michael Dukakis.
jwest — no, I'm not saying the defense shouldn't take that approach. It's really about all they've got. But it's not just sites that represent anti-death penalty “liberal” groups (though some are, I'm sure).
The argument has been going on for years. Here's a piece from 2007, for instance. (link.)
PM, are you seriously upset just because people are arguing against the death penalty? I'd argue against it as well because I oppose the death penalty, period- it has nothing to do with my opinion of the heinous crime committed.
Nope, CStanley. I'm making my usual argument in favor under certain conditions. Nothing new here, really.
Well, I'm just trying to establish though if you have an 'agree to disagree' stance with people whose opinion is opposed to death penalty, vs. an opinion that that's an unacceptable position to hold. I do find that sentence that jwest quoted a bit odd if it's the former- because people who oppose the death penalty across the board are not excusing anything.
CStanley, people are, as ever, free to have whatever opinion they wish.
I don't intend to go through everything ever written by specific authors to discover whether they've been 100% consistent across the board on their position on the death penalty.
I'm arguing strongly for the verdict that I want to see come out of the jury in Kentucky. I want them, specifically, to reject the contextualizing and excusing that they'll be hearing.
The part that confounds me is your use of the word 'excusing'.
If some people were arguing that this man should be raped and tortured for his act, while other people argued against that, would the opponents of that type of punishment be 'excusing' his crime?
PM,
Now I’m really confused.
It seems that you’re inferring there are some conservative sites that have tried to make excuses for this atrocity. If there are, I’ve not seen them and would roundly condemn anyone trying to minimize crimes against civilians.
Please supply any links of offending sites so that I can voice my opposition directly.
CStanley, a jury in a capital crime is screened. They use voir dire to excuse people who object to the death penalty on GP. If the jury in this case agrees with Green's attorneys that the horrors of war extenuate the crime, then they would, in effect, be excusing him.
I'm confounded by your confoundedness.
My confoundedness is because you seem to be applying the 'exusatory' accusation at those people who would be screened out in the jury selection when you register complaint that people are expressing opinions against the death penalty in this case.
If you have examples of people who accept the use of the death penalty but don't think it should be applied in this case, then I could understand your use of the term 'excusing', but if the opponents of administering the death penalty to this guy are making the case against the death penalty because they oppose capital punishment in general, then they're not excusing him, right?
First of all, no blog post that I have written in the past four years has generated as much traffic as a takeout I did on the entire rape-murder-cover up. The vast majority of those readers have come from outside the U.S. and that again was the case when there was a huge spike in readers of the post after Green's conviction last week. Read what you may into that.
Secondly, Should Green's life be spared when he took four others? I don't have it in my heart to play God with this one.
But I do know that Green was unfit to wear an Army uniform, but he not only was fast-tracked through basic training and sent off to Iraq, his readily obvious homicidal tendencies were merely acknowledged and dealt with by medication, “Atta boys” and pats on the back as he was repeatedly sent back into the hell hole that was the region where Abeer lived.
It wasn’t likely that Green would trigger something awful while he was in Iraq, it was inevitable, and the war was a perfect crucible: Not enough troops, vague and changing rules of engagement, negligible efforts to win over an occupied people, and an Army mental-health system that betrays its own soldiers just as their president betrayed his country.
Off topic, but interesting.
I thought you might like to bring this mystery to TMV for the moderate opinion.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2009/05/air-force-…
I'm opposed to the death penalty, too. I think Green should spend the rest of his life in a maximum security prison.
You should not be surprised that white americans are going to want his life spared. If he was black, he would have been executed w/out trial. Of course in the opposite situation, if an iraqi group raped a 14 year old american girl, him and the entire town would have suffered the consequences, but try expaining this to white americans – it goes in one ear and out the other. Its only evil to them if a colored man does the crime. When its a white person, its psychological problems.
I wonder how many young innocent american soldiers straight out of highschool are going to die terrible deaths by ignorant iraqis because of what Greene did. Rape in foreign lands is one of the most dangerous things that can happen, and the military has to prevent it at any cost.