The US invaded Iraq to "liberate" its inhabitants. This is what we have been told, over and over. With reports of abuse growing, the idea of a US liberation is about as credible as Iraqi WMDs.
Was Abeer Qassim al-Janabi "liberated" by half a dozen American soldiers who forced their way into her home and murdered her father, mother, and little five-year-old sister in cold blood? Soldiers often justify mass killings of innocent civilians by claiming that their life was in danger or "we thought she had a gun." But with what words can anyone justify the brutal gang-rape of a 14-year-old girl? She posed no danger to these men, subdued, her underwear torn away, pinned to the ground, screaming and crying, with a gun pointed at her head.
Any war is a war against women and children. Soldiers can foxhole, flee, join forces, fight back. Soldiers are trained, armed, ready to kill. Women and children are usually not. The very sort of "chivalry" that keeps women out of armies, renders them almost helpless in times of war. National leaders refer to war-time violence against women and children as "collateral damage," as if their suffering were no more than an expected cost of war.
When inexperienced soldiers have nothing better to do than hit golfballs while planning the gang rape of a teenage girl, something is grossly wrong with our armed forces. When boys barely out of high school can slaughter an entire family, burn bodies, and then enjoy chicken on the grill, something is wrong not only with those who pulled the trigger but with the collective conscience of the entire system.
Women and children will never be safe in a world where horny killers roam the streets with AK-47's.
JBT
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