Not All Are Heroes

Earlier I wrote a post regarding the heroes of our men and women of our armed forces. Today I was reading the news and stumbled upon this article. It was about a man who pleaded guilty to the charges of raping a 14-year old Iraqi girl, then helping cover up the murder of her and her entire family. They set this poor girl's body on fire. At least four marines have been indicted in this case, and it got much publicity when it was first uncovered.

The marine in question was sentenced to 90 years in prison, with a chance of parole after 20 years as part of his plea agreement to testify against the others. He said that he knew what he did would help undermine trust in American forces in Iraq, saying:

“I do not ask anyone to forgive me today,” he tearfully told the judge. “I don’t know how that would be possible after what I have done. I do ask the Iraqi people not to blame my brothers still fighting in Iraq.”

I do not think that he has any rights to call them brothers. He made their jobs 1000 times harder. But then, honestly I think that he forfeited his rights as a human being the day he decided to go along with those monsters to gang rape a little girl.

He proved that he was a monster, not just by his actions, such as deriliction of duty, leaving your post, murder and rape; but also by his reactions, or lack thereof.

Barker, 23, showed no reaction when the sentence was read. Afterward, he smoked a cigarette outside as a bailiff watched over him. He grinned but said nothing as reporters passed by.

What does he have to smile about? He stole the smile of that little girl and the rest of her family. That little girl was not a Mujahadeen, or part of Jaish al-Mehdi. That little girl didn't set IED's or call out to the Al-Qaeda banner. She had enough to deal with living in a war-torn country without having to worry about her protectors killing her out of malice.

The defense attorney tried to pull the "Combat Stress and lack of supplies" defense. I'm sorry, we have 150,000 troops over there and you don't see the vast majority of them doing this. Not a single one of them is stress free. There is no excuse for that. There is no pardon for that. It enrages me to the point that if I ever passed him on the street knowing it was him I would lose myself, I would only see red. Unfortunately his life is worthless compared to that little girl's, and not even his death will settle the score. He is not even worth the price to keep him in prison, much less worth ever calling himself a man. He is barely worth the cost of a single .45 caliber bullet.

At no point was he too stressed to know that girl was barely a teenager. At no point was he so stressed with combat fatigue that he didn't know raping her while people were shooting her family in the background was wrong. We are there to help them, and his single act just made everyone related to that family, or everyone who knew that family hate us. Hate me, who they don't even know, because of this man without a conscience.

Had I been there, had I heard those men talking about what they were going to do before they changed clothes and left their post, I would have reported them. Had I seen them walk off of their post with their weapons, I would have followed them. And had I seen any of them trying to hurt that little girl, I would have shot every one of them, or died trying.

It is things like these that make me believe in a heaven and a hell. Nothing we can do to these men will give them the punishment they deserve, and nothing we could do in this world could make that girl receive the peace she deserved.

I try to be in the middle. I know I lean a little to the right, in a more true sense to the word than people who claim to lean to the right today. I believe that the government should do its best to uphold individual rights. Which is where I get most of my beliefs, gun rights, pro-choice, freedom of religion...all because those are individual rights that should be respected as long as they don't infringe on other people's individual rights.

These men infringed on her rights, forfeited their own, and I hate them down to the marrow. One thing that does bring me a little closer to knowing they will get their due are the stories I have heard about what people in prison do to people who hurt little kids.

There was something I read a long time ago about Islam that I vaguely remember, but can't quote exactly.

"To those who go to Paradise, Earth was their hell. But for those in Hell, Earth was a paradise."

In memory of Abeer Qassim al-Janabi, ali'ya hamha, who had more than her share of hell in her short 14 years.