CNN says in Bush approves execution of Army private that
President Bush has approved the Army's request to execute a soldier convicted of rape and murder, the White House announced Monday evening.
Pvt. Ronald Gray has been on the military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, since 1988. His execution would be the first for the U.S. military since 1961, but the White House said it expects further appeals before the sentence is carried out. ...
Gray was convicted of raping and killing a female Army private and a civilian near his post at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was also convicted of the rape and attempted murder of another fellow soldier in her barracks at Fort Bragg. ...
Gray seems like a loathsome human being, but I seem to remember reading about plenty of killings committed by U.S. soldiers, some being Iraq veterans. Why Gray, who seems to be an African American (from the CNN photo)? And why now?
Could it be because of the election, and Barack Obama?
(more below)
What this may be, or may turn out to be, is a way of making Americans scared of black people, a la the killer and rapist Willie Horton focused on by Lee Atwater during the 1988 George Bush campaign, while an election involving a black man, Barack Obama, is going on. Republicans can't do anything too overt, such as calling him "Black Osama", but plenty of indirect stuff can be done.
Aside from the "scary black people" meme, there are additional problems for Obama. E.g., people may ask him if Gray should be executed. (Obama has been somewhat pro-death penalty lately, but the Gray issue may add some further pressure on him.) And, cf. this Associated Content comment on the issue (LINK LOADING NOW, FINALLY--for now), if the appeals continue until Obama is in the White House, he may look bad if he gives Gray clemency. (Sort of in the same way as George Bush Sr. gave Bill Clinton the war in Somalia as a "parting gift" to deal with.)
Of course, the timing of Bush's o.k. may just be coincidental. And supposedly, the Army is asking Bush to kill Gray, so that he's just "approving".
Still, the timing is interesting, and the fact that it would be the first military execution in almost 50 years, looks a little strange.
(And speaking of Iraq veterans, see the case of this Iraq soldier, who seems to have escaped the death penalty. There may be a double standard here...)
...What about the people responsible for Abu Ghraib, and of course, all the politicians responsible for the Iraq War in the first place? I know a few Abu Ghraib people have been punished, but has everyone responsible been punished?
If the death penalty is being applied, aren't there plenty of other people who should be executed too?
So think what you will, but I am not impressed by the decision by Bush to do this without, say, confessing all of his own bad decisions, or crimes, even. For Gray, evil as he is, to be used as a sort of political pinata, or surrogate for Barack Obama ("if we can't get Obama, we'll get this guy"), is not something we should easily stomach.