In a
diary last Friday, I linked to reporting showing that the soldiers beheaded early last month in Iraq served in the same platoon as Private Steven Green, the soldier accused of leading the team that raped and murdered a fifteen year-old girl and her family back in March. At the time, the
official line from the US military was that "the killings appear[ed] to be unrelated to the kidnappings."
That line now seems to be changing, according to Julian Barnes in today's LA Times.
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.
More quotes on the flip.
"Was it a target of opportunity or was it a warning: Don't do this to our women?" said the military official....
We are trying to find out if this hit on these three soldiers was a retribution for the rape and murder. "I cannot fathom the audacity it would take to do such a complex attack. What sort of rage exists in the populace? Are they saying, 'We aren't going to take this from people who do this to our women?' "
Barnes goes on to note that the two soldiers, Kristian Manchaca and Thomas Tucker, were kidnapped in Yousifiya, a town near Mahmoudiya where the rape-murder occurred, and that it was during the investigation into the earlier incident that the Army first learned of Green's crime.
Elsewhere, it has been reported that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is demanding an independent Iraqi investigation into the rape-murder. Barnes only notes:
Military officials are reeling from a series of allegations of atrocities involving U.S. troops in Iraq. The cases include the slayings in November of 24 civilians in Haditha. The graphic details about the Mahmoudiya case have top officers in Iraq worried that the charges could prove as explosive as the photographs of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison.
Lakoff, et al, had a
diary last week arguing that it's a mistake to call Bush incompetent. As this story continues to develop, and as the entire Iraq adventure descends yet further into the depths of disaster, it is hard to escape the conclusion that the administration doesn't have a clue what it is doing.