If Bush's mercenaries are gang raping American women in Iraq what they are doing to Iraqi women?

[NNN0LHI]

Just saying...

Don

[Virginia Dare]

1. They're doing it to children...n/t

[Echo In Light]

13. True. Sodomizing children in Abu Ghraib, on video

[Liberal In Texas]

2. Probably getting away with it. n/t

[cali]

3. The same thing. And probably killing them afterwards. n/t

[madokie]

4. fucking the Iraqi's six ways to sunday

bushco

[KharmaTrain]

5. How About Drugs?

A Vietnam Vet friend of mine discussed his tour in 1970-71 and how rampant drug use in the military was. It ranked right up there with alcohol and both were abused in that war. He brought it up in the context of Iraq and the stories he's heard from returning vets of how desolate and depressing conditions were in that country and that drug use was soaring within the military, but it wasn't being reported. He said he couldn't even relate to their situation as he served one 6 month rotation into the war zone and spent much of that time going from one part of the Mekong Delta to the other compared to these guys who had served 2 or 3 12 to 15 month hitches in the desert...pretty much living groundhogs day and trying to keep from getting their heads shot off. He predicts we're going to learn of a lot of drug abuse that is what leads to many other problems, including homelessness.

Remember, Iraqis are no longer considered "casulaties" by our Defense Department...and any murder has to meet a specific criteria. Where do you think rape would fall into this? I keep hearing wingnuts decry how Haditha never happened or its been overblown. Or that, just like in Vietnam or any war, the "enemy" had it coming...it's the "spoils of war".

This is truly a black war...dark, dirty and secret...and with it we'll never get a full accounting of what's occured.

[I work for workers]

6. As far as I know, the military prohibits alcohol in Iraq out of respect for Islam.

I'm sure it's there, but I don't believe it's permitted.

[NNN0LHI]

8. I think you may be misinformed

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/yeariniraq/analysis/greenzone.html

Life in the Green Zone is thoroughly disconnected from the reality around. Outside, Iraq was in a fair degree of postwar chaos. There wasn't much electricity. There was rampant crime on the streets, traffic jams. Nobody was working. It was just kind of anarchy.

Inside the Green Zone, it was like a different planet inside those 17-foot-high walls. We're in the middle of a Muslim country, right? Muslims don't eat pork. What do they serve at the CPA dining hall for breakfast? Pork bacon. Hotdogs for lunch. They had six or seven bars in the Green Zone where you could get cold beer and wine. There was a disco at the al-Rashid Hotel where girls -- and I kid you not -- would pack hot pants and four-inch heels when they came to Baghdad so they could be out dancing atop an illuminated Baath Party star.

[KharmaTrain]

10. Then There Was That Blackwater Shooting Of An Iraqi Guard

IRC, alcohol was suspected to be involved in that incident.

Inside the Emerald City also covered a lot of the detachment of the Green Zone.

There's also the "day/night" culture...one that wears a head covering out on the street but lets the hair down behind closed doors. Just like how our society will wink and nod about piety on the outside and partying on the inside, alcohol has long been popular behind closed doors in Islamic countries and I'm sure our military and their contractor friends are assisting in that pipeline.

Cheers...

[KharmaTrain]

9. And The DOD Has Been Honest About Other Things?

I'm sure if you walk on a base you won't find a Bud vendor in the Green Zone, but you better believe there's alcohol to be had there. How else would Blackwater guards end up shooting a bodyguard of an Iraqi parliment member or is suspected in a recent shooting of the dog of a New York Times reporter.

I recall my father's World War II stories about how his medical unit did a land-office business distilling alcohol and other substances that ended up in flasks all over Western Europe.

Sadly, a lot of things "aren't permitted" in a war...but war in itself is the ultimate insanity.

Cheers...

[uppityperson]

11. May be "prohibited" but not prohibited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeer_Qasim_Hamza
On March 12, 2006 the soldiers (from the 502nd Infantry Regiment) at the checkpoint had been drinking alcohol and discussing plans to rape Abeer.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1211562,00.html

[MetaTrope]

7. According to Fox News, drug abuse is a big problem

...among British troops

[baldguy]

12. Creating more terrorists

[uppityperson]

14. RIP Abeer..... (latest news I found...)

Hadeel, Fakhriya, and Qasim, RIP

from wiki: In July, 2007, federal prosecutors announced they will be seeking the death penalty for Green. This is based on the fact that prosecutors believe the rape and killings were premeditated, and were committed using a firearm.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/19/iraq/main3631048.shtml

...On Tuesday, his trial was set for April 13, 2009, in Paducah, Kentucky.

Defense attorneys and federal prosecutors in the case have fought each other on the reach of federal courts into military affairs, the access civilian attorneys have to classified military evidence, and, most recently, what constitutes enough time to prepare for trial.

Some legal experts say the delays and infighting suggest challenges ahead in trying the last chapter of what many regard as the worst atrocity committed by U.S. military personnel in Iraq.

"You've got some very smart people trying a type of case that they normally don't," said Charles Rose, a law professor at Stetson University and former deputy military judge advocate. "Federal criminal courts are designed for paper-driven cases. They don't do violations of the laws of war." ...

http://www.wlky.com/news/14887598/detail.html

A former Army private accused of raping and killing an Iraqi then killing her family won't face trial in the case for another year and a half.

A federal judge set a trial date of April 2009 for Steven Green, who's charged with raping and murdering the 14-year-old girl and killing her family in March 2006.

Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty and had wanted the trial to begin next August. But defense lawyers argued for the April 2009 date so they could adequately prepare.

Four soldiers have already been convicted in the case and are serving sentences ranging from five to 110 years.