Death or Life in Prison for Steven Green's crimes in Iraq? (RIP Abeer, etc)

There were so many horrible stories out of Iraq -- savage, unspeakable atrocities that rolled across the national consciousness over the course of the war. Back here in the US, we read reports on our laptops or watched the news from the comfort of our living rooms, and passed judgment on events occurring in our names on the other side of the planet. Safely esconced in a technological vacuum, Americans argued and wrangled with the morality of violence and war.

I suspect everyone has a specific event from the Iraq war that stands out in their minds. For me, though, there was really only one that resisted every form of intellectual or empathetic gymnastics: Mahmoudiya.

Do you remember? That was where, in March 2006, an Iraqi family was murdered; where a 14-year-old girl was raped repeatedly, then shot, and her body set on fire. It was not a checkpoint shooting, or an interrogation, or a street confrontation. It was a premeditated violation of everything civilized. (clip)

Green was found guilty last week -- utterly unsurprising, since not even his defense attorneys are asserting he didn't do it -- and today, the sentencing phase starts. His lawyers will now try to mitigate his actions. They'll emphasize his 'personality disorder', and they'll try to present this atrocity within the context of war.
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