"Those men killed my father"
This story seems to have slipped by at the end of last month, it makes me sick to read it, but I had to read it again, to let it really sink in. If the Brits can hold these men accountable, they might be able to spare their citizens some of the backlash that will surely come.
We will not be so lucky. We will have no real trials of the war criminals on our side. We have people here who think torture is perfectly ok, because "they're worse". More below the fold...
British soldiers face war crimes charges
...Members of the Queen's Lancashire Regiment allegedly beat Baha Mousa, 26, a hotel receptionist in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, to death in September 2003...
...At least four QLR soldiers face charges of murder and abuse and yesterday it was reported that they and another seven soldiers and officers could face wider war crimes charges under legislation enacted in 2001 after the establishment of the International Criminal Court...
...According to Kifah Taha, 46, a maintenance engineer who was one of the six, beatings started immediately. There was a competition to see which soldier could kickbox a prisoner the furthest...
...Baha suffered the most and on the second night he was taken to another room from which Mr Taha said he could hear him moaning
"Blood. There's blood coming from my nose. I'm going to die."
After punches and kicks, Mr Taha's kidneys failed and he nearly died. He and the other five survivors were eventually released without charge.
They kicked him for fun until his kidneys failed, and then let him go. To die.
The people we are making terrorists out of were normal people, just living their lives and going about the business of seeing their children and grandchildren grow up. But now the grandchildren will grow up to avenge their father's murder.
Someday there will be others like them, who will come here and kill us. They will not be able to tell which of us voted against the neocons. They will only see the faces of their dead, and the laughing faces of the Americans who killed them.
Torture works. It strengthens the hands of the neocons because when the backlash arrives, the fear that is generated will play right into their hands.
I wish I believed in God, so I could know that he will damn the neocons.