We Are the Murderers!

One of my daughters happens to be a classmate (from the Horace Mann School) of our soldier who has been charged with murder in Iraq for firing into a car that was approaching him at a check point and shooting and killing two civilians.

My daughter is incensed by this charge. Had it not been by the great good fortune that she decided not to carry on medical training in the military, but rather had resigned prior to 9/11, she would most likely be one of those mom's saying good-bye to her children to serve in this illegal war which makes all Americans war criminals. She is infinitely relieved that she is not involved in this criminal war -- her sense of the proper role of the American military was that it assist people in need and keep the peace wherever needed.

My daughter's sense, having known the person charged for five school years, is that this soldier was facing the same pressures and reacting in the same ways that many others of our troops are undoubtedly -- and particularly did when they devastated Falluja, i.e. shooting in self defense to halt potential threats to their existence in the heat of the moment when indecision may prove fatal.

Personally I would read this case as yet another attempt to distract attention from the war crimes being committed by Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, the Kristols, and all the rest of the neocons who plotted this military maneuver to control the Middle East and its oil supplies. High crimes and misdemeanors merit impeachment -- not scapegoat trials of those whose lives are being put on the line and sacrificed by this power happy, greedy gang of criminals.