Another practical problem of war crimes

Steve Gilliard was speculating about this as soon as the news came out about the high-profile Mahmoudiya rape and murder investigation in the news the last several days. Dick Cheney and Rummy, who appear to be people for whom legal and moral restraints don't exist, have forced the US to seemingly relearn some of the most basic concepts undergirding the laws and customs of warfare: U.S. Sees Possible Links Between Incidents in Iraq: The slayings of three soldiers near the site of an alleged rape and the killing of a family may have been an act of revenge, an official says by Julian Barnes Los Angeles Times 07/05/06. Barnes reports:

The U.S. military is investigating whether the kidnapping, killing and mutilation of two American soldiers was carried out in retaliation for an alleged rape and murder of an Iraqi woman by another member of the same unit three months earlier, a military official said Tuesday.

The incidents occurred in nearby towns and the soldiers involved were in the same unit. The bodies of the two American soldiers and at least one Iraqi were mutilated. A third U.S. soldier was killed during the kidnapping of his comrades.

The official, citing results of a preliminary military investigation, also said military officers had forced the chief suspect in the rape case out of the Army before the accusation against him came to light because they believed he could pose a threat to Iraqi civilians.

It's often overlooked, especially in the current climate where the Republican Party tolerates, encourages and sometimes celebrates lawlessness in war. But the Geneva Convention rules on treatment of prisoners applies to all sides in a conflict, no matter how the enemy is treating their prisoners. The daily torture-murders in Iraq by sectarian combatants do not justify the US torturing prisoners. And no matter what crimes the US may have committed in Iraq, the guerrillas who tortured those two American soldiers to death were also committing a war crime.

It's also foolish not to recognize that, in an honor-based culture like Iraq's where elaborate clan ties and traditional customs of revenge and reconciliation are observed, random violence or mistreatment of civilians will have practical consequences.

On the Mahmoudiya rape-murder, I have to wonder how it is that the civilian prosecutors have enough evidence to file charges against Steven Green, but the military still hasn't brought charges against the other soldiers who allegedly took part in the crime.

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