"Stuff Happens," Donald Rumsfeld, 4/11/03

Four guys have now been charged along with Steven Green in the rape / murder / coverup in Mahmoudiya, Iraq. The four are still on duty (now there's a comforting thought) pending the investigation. A fifth man has been charged with dereliction of duty. The names of the five haven't been released, but they're all members of the 101st Airborne. The raped & murdered girl's name was Abeer Qassim Hamza. The killer(s) also murdered her parents, Qassim Hamza and Fikhriya Taha and her 5 year old sister, Hadeel Qassim Hamza.

The age of the girl, (I can say girl, I'm in my 40s) Green raped is being listed by the BBC as between 14-20. The top side of that being the age of so many of these kids we send over to Iraq.

It's a long standing truth that old men create wars in which young men die. But as Iraq has moved from invasion war (remember Mission Accomplished) to police action war, we continue to send young men and women into the conflict who have little to no training in violent conflict resolution. It can't possibly be a surprise to anyone that US "collateral damage" is so high. The insurgents kill more Iraqi citizens than we do. But can anyone really defend the high numbers of the "30,000 more or less" innocent men, women and children we have killed in our quest to free them?