Crime after crime

I felt a chill when I first read, a few days ago, that US soldiers in Iraq were suspected of raping a young woman, and of then murdering her and her family. Now a former US serviceman _recently discharged with a 'personality disorder'_ has been charged in North Carolina with rape and murder.

One bad apple, you might say, but it seems that up to five soldiers were involved. So five bad apples. But it's a little bit more than that. For a start, US officials initially put this down to sectarian violence between Iraqis. That means it wasn't regarded as noteworthy, or subject to much investigation. Yet it's obvious that local people knew much of what had happened. The mayor of Mahmudiya, the town where the events took place, said that the young woman was just 16 when her life was ended in such a terrible way.

The accusations came to light because those accused were from the same platoon as two soldiers who were captured by guerrillas nearby and were killed and mutilated. According to an unnamed officer quoted by Associated Press, this stirred feelings of guilt and led one soldier to reveal the alleged crime.

It's surely right to assume that events weren't a total secret among the soldiers. But nothing came out until over 3 months after the attack.

On the face of it few could have any sympathy for Steven Green, the accused ex soldier. Now he faces civilian prosecution and possibly the death penalty. How convenient for the military authorities, that he will be treated as a criminal acting on his own rather than as part of an oppressive occupying force.

Rape in wartime is unfortunately common. It happens because one side dehumanises the other and is part of the brutal package of injury, destruction and death which afflicts civilian populations in such times. The modern occupiers of the Middle East like to think they are above this sort of thing. But the story of the past 3 years proves them wrong. Once you occupy a country then you begin to see its people as less than you, as people whose life is cheap, whose sensibilities don't match those of your own loved ones.

Many individual soldiers probably hate this situation _we know the discontent among British and US troops is quite widespread _ but there is a hideous logic to being in this position. Look at Fallujah, Ramadi and all the other towns laid waste by the occupation forces, and look at how they have attacked, injured and killed Iraqis. They see it differently: the population are either insurgents, or giving aid to insurgents. So they attack, and so push the population into greater opposition.

Civilians are often the biggest casualties of war these days and women bear much of the brunt. In Iraq, they face food, electricity and water shortages, child malnutrition, restrictions on movement and dress, kidnapping, rape and death and injury to them or their families. Hardly the picture of emancipation which the liberal imperialists claim is such an imperative for war.

Just two questions though: how much do the officers, and security men, and diplomats know about the behaviour of the troops? And how many injuries, rapes or deaths have been inflicted by the occupying troops under cover of 'sectarian violence'?