Intrinsically evil

Former Pfc Steven Green, convicted for his part in the Mahmudiya Massacre, in which he and his buds killed an entire family in order to gang rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, Abeer al-Janabi, whose body they set on fire, escaped the death penalty, evidently because some on the jury thought his acts were attributable to “the stress of Green’s bloody combat tour, poor mental health treatment in Iraq and weak leadership in his unit.” I haven’t posted about this for a week, because I’m not entirely sure what to say about people who think that people react to “stress” with rape and mass murder.

Yesterday, at a victim impact hearing (!), Green said he was “truly sorry” and that he now realized that the Iraq war is “intrinsically evil, because killing is intrinsically evil.” See, it’s just like an after-school special, in which everyone comes to learn a valuable lesson.

Bad touch

In other war crime trial news, Priv. Jesse Spielman has been sentenced to 110 years for his role in the Mahmudiya Massacre, in which 14-year-old Abeer al-Janabi was gang-raped, then murdered along with her entire family. Spielman just stood lookout and participated in the cover-up, and so was convicted of conspiracy, arson (of the body), drinking, and... wait for it... “wrongfully touching a corpse,” but got the longest sentence (not that I’m feeling sorry for him, you understand, just noting the capriciousness of the military justice system). He’ll be eligible for parole in 10 years, after serving just 9% of his sentence.

A temporary feeling of goodness

Sgt Paul Cortez of the 101st Airborne got 101 100 years for participating in the Mahmudiya massacre, gang-rape, and barbeque. Where one of his accomplices at his own trial explained his actions with the words, “I hated Iraqis,” Cortez said “I still don’t have an answer. I don’t know why.” We’ll check back in 100 years.

Plan your next vacation now: the Guardian visits the Welsh National Wool Museum.

Army chief of staff Peter Schoomaker, who used to run the operation to capture Osama bin Laden, says that it isn’t really that important to capture Osama bin Laden, now that he thinks about it. “I don’t know that it’s all that important, frankly,” he said, and if we did succeed, “then what? There’s a temporary feeling of goodness, but in the long run, we may make him bigger than he is today.” That’s exactly how I feel about Scarlett Johansson not answering any of my letters and emails and invitations to join me in a trip to the Welsh National Wool Museum, and getting that restraining order. I mean, now that I think about it, I don’t know that she’s all that hot, frankly. And if I did succeed, then what? There’s a temporary... okay, I’ll stop there.

I hated Iraqis

One of the rapists/mass murderers in the Mahmudiya incident, Spc. James Barker, has pled guilty and was sentenced to life or 90 years, whichever comes first. The judge asked why he did it. “I hated Iraqis, your honor.” This, to borrow a line from Atrios, has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

He went on: “They can smile at you, then shoot you in your face without even thinking about it.” I’m not sure if a guy who raped a 14-year-old girl, burned her body and killed her whole family should really be pointing fingers. Or possibly it was just the smiling that he objected to.

As an experiment, I’m using the labels feature of Beta Blogger for the first time, allowing you to read my previous posts on this incident. It’s an attractive feature, especially for a blog with 3,402 posts going back over a decade, a way to make those archives useful. I was looking back over some of my old Trent Lott posts just yesterday, for example. Good times, good times. But attaching labels to 3,402 posts seems very much like work. I’m also worried that republishing those posts, like I just did for the Mahmudiya posts, will be obnoxious for RSS users. Opinions? suggestions?

Mahmudiya

More testimony today about the... unpleasantness... in Mahmudiya. Honestly, I don’t know what to call it. There was a gang-rape, it was of a 14-year old, they burned her body, killed her and her family. There’s not really a word that sums all that up. Speaking of summing up, let’s look at the headlines. The Guardian headline to an AP story focuses on the preliminaries: “Soldiers ‘Hit Golf Balls Before Going out to Kill Family.’” Other headlines mention whisky (mixed with an energy drink) and gin rummy. The Daily Telegraph focuses on the after-party: “Troops Ate Chicken Wings after ‘Killing Rape Girl, 14.’” The BBC notes that the “Troops ‘Took Turns’ to Rape Iraqi,” CNN that “U.S. Soldier Poured Kerosene on Raped, Slain Iraqi.” So many ugly, ugly details to focus on. May I stop focusing on them now? Please?

I haven’t heard Olmert complaining

Asked whether Bush planned to call any Middle Eastern leaders about the draft UN resolution, Tony Insert-Snow-Related-Pun-Here said, “I don’t know if he needs to. I haven’t heard Olmert complaining.” Oy. Besides, Bush was busy with more pressing matters.



Hearings have begun for the soldiers accused of conspiring with Pfc. Steven Green to cover up his rape of a 14-year old Iraqi girl in Mahmudiya and subsequent massacre of her and her family. The London Sunday Times, which seems to have seen papers that no one else has, reports that the girl was not raped only by Green.

The Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie says that Iraq has civil strife but not a civil war. So that’s okay then.

Pointless invention of the week: a $1.5 million bed that floats. Magnets are involved.

Fiscal hogs, an interesting thing about terrorists, what’s un-Islamic now, and George’s new shoes

In a press conference with foreign newspapers, Bush made perhaps his least appropriate use of his favorite adjective: “It’s an interesting thing about terrorists, by the way, they’ll kill children like that. They don’t care.”

He also talked about his good friend Pooty-Poot, whose thugs are currently disrupting a pro-democracy conference and ordering dissidents to leave Moscow during the G-8 summit. “We’ve [Laura and he] got a good friendship with the Putins. We’re comfortable around them.” Must not have seen that video of Vlad kissing that kid’s stomach. Or maybe he has seen it and is looking forward to having his own stomach kissed.

Oh, I am not gonna be able to get that image out of my head.

About the Mahmudiya rape/mass murder, Editor & Publisher asks something I asked 6 days ago, why the media keep referring to the rape victim (D.O.B. 8/19/91), Abeer al-Janabi, as a “woman.”

Riverbend thinks there have been many more rapes, that the only reason this one came out was that her whole family, which would normally have felt dishonor and kept quiet, was killed along with her.

She also says that Maliki’s family is abroad. I haven’t seen this elsewhere. Can anyone confirm?

Bush called again for a line-item veto (the unconstitutional version passed by the House) in order to allow him to “target unnecessary spending” and stop legislators “stuffing stuff into these bills that never gets a hearing or the light of day”. Thing is, he’s implying that he would use the power to shame greedy congresscritters, but I don’t think he’s ever named a single spending item he would have vetoed if he had the power, never brought any of this “stuff” into the light of day.

Later, at a fundraiser for Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Mark Green, he said, “You’ve got to make sure you’ve got a good fiscal hog in your governor’s seat. You’ve got to have somebody who’s willing to take on the sacred cow.” Fiscal hog?

The Somali Islamists have captured the last of the American-backed warlords, and Coca-Cola has been declared un-Islamic.

Bush was happy today. Look how excited he is about going for a ride in his helicopter.


And look how excited he is to be given these, um, colorful shoes. The entire cast of Sex and the City put together was never so excited by and proud of a pair of shoes.



In fact he is so excited that he has forgotten how to walk.

Accountability

Various members of the Italian intelligence services have been arrested, and warrants issued for 26 American CIA agents and suchlike, for the kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, who was flown from Italy to Egypt for torture. This is the Italian legal system we’re talking about, so I wouldn’t expect too much, but it should be fun while it lasts.

Another lovely quote from Gen. William Caldwell IV about Mahmudiya: “We will hold ourselves accountable for our actions.” But if there’d been a rape and multiple murder and cover-up by Saddam Hussein’s military, he actually did have the gall to go on and say, “there was absolutely no accountability”.

Military Moron
I will now end, like all blog posts should, with a picture of a bear in a convertible.

We must remember the acts of a few should not outweigh the deeds of the many

North Korea launches 7 missiles, Bush calls for 6-party talks. I’m sensing a 12-days-of-Christmas thing here.

Incidentally, how do we know the test was a failure, just because the missile fell into the Sea of Japan? The North Koreans are so weird they may just have initiated a war with Atlantis.

Condi agrees with me, saying, “I can’t really judge the motivations of the North Korea regime. I wouldn’t begin to try.” Of course the difference between her and me is that it’s her fucking job to try to understand the motivations of the North Korean regime.

The website of North Korea’s Central News Agency doesn’t mention the missile testing. Its top story today: “Kim Jong Il Gives On-Site Guidance to New Pyongyang Taesong Tire Factory.” That guidance? Make a lot of tires. See, that sort of guidance is why he’s the dictator, and you’re not.

The Pentagon’s spokesmodel in Iraq, Gen. William Caldwell IV, says we shouldn’t “rush to judgment” about the soldier who killed an entire family in Mahmudiya so he could rape the daughter (who the NYT, LAT and others call a “woman,” although consensus now is that she was 15). Says Caldwell, “we must remember the acts of a few should not outweigh the deeds of the many.”