Reading the news today, I noticed a certain coincidence regarding Senator McConnell of my home state of Kentucky's statements on MTP about the recent Supreme Court ruling and a concurrent story about the rape and murder allegations coming out of Iraq. Apparently Mitch is deeply disturbed that our American soldiers might (shrill gasp) find themselves subject to international law:
WASHINGTON Jul 2, 2006 (AP)-- Two Republican senators said Sunday that Congress must rein in the Supreme Court ruling that international law applies to the Bush administration's conduct in the war on terror. Thursday's Supreme Court decision embracing Article 3 of the Geneva Accords in the military commission case of Osama bin Laden's former driver strikes at the heart of the White House's legal position in the war on al-Qaida.
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the second-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, said the 5-3 court decision "means that American servicemen potentially could be accused of war crimes."
"I think Congress is going to want to deal with that," McConnell said on NBC's "Meet the Press." He called the ruling "very disturbing."
This statement is, on its face, asinine. McConnell's apparent thesis is that American soldiers should a) be allowed to pre-emptively invade sovereign countries under dubious pretenses and in the face of widespread international condemnation, and b) be exempt from any prosecution for their conduct inside these countries unless America itself chooses (under its own potentially arbitrary criteria) to conduct the prosectution. This thesis by itself is outrageous, but becomes even more troubling when coupled with today's top news story, which coincidentally happens to come from McConnell's very own state:
From CNN:
Steven D. Green, who had been stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, with the 101st Airborne Division, was taken into custody Friday evening, the Army said Monday in a news release.
He is charged with killing an Iraqi man, two women and a girl, as well as raping one of the females, according to U.S. Attorney David L. Huber of the Western District of Kentucky and FBI Special Agent in Charge Tracy Reinhold of Louisville, Kentucky.
This is, of course, not the first (nor the last) of such allegations coming out of Iraq, but the proximity of the two stories places McConnell's statements in an even more shameful light. Should we assume that the American government will always be wholly prepared to adequately address each and every similar allegation coming out of Iraq and, potentially, other conflicts in the future? Do scandals such as Abu Ghraib lend us a great deal of confidence with respect to their ability to do so?
I hope that Senator McConell will soon be confronted with these dishonorable comments in light of the unspeakable story coming out of the very state he represents.