It’s important to recognize the connectedness of sexual violence and imperialism, racism, and war. The background story on the rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl by U.S. military mentioned below states that the mother recognized that her innocent daughter had somehow “attracted the attention” of the military men at a checkpoint. It also reads that these men, on military time and with military-issue equipment, planned and plotted their assault on this girl. And, certainly, it was with military-issue guns that they murdered this family. The story also states that, mostly likely as a form of retribution, Iraqi insurgents killed 2 of the fellow service-people stationed alongside the men accused of the rape and murder. The superiors of the 5 men who stand accused attempted to cover up the actions
This says several important things to me: 1) If not for this Imperialist occupation of Iraq, the men would never have been in Iraq,with means and access to commit these heinous acts. 2) If not for this Imperialist occupation, these men would not have been filled with so much disdain and loathing for the people of Iraq that they could wittingly torture, terrorize, and rape and murder innocent people. 3) If not for this Imperialist occupation of Iraq, the nation would not be in such upheaval and distress, making it that much easier for this kind of violence to occur. 4) If not for their terrible acts, insurgents wouldn’t be killing even more U.S. military out of retribution.
Steven Green, the central man accused of the rape and murders, was “honorably discharged” from the military just before the news of this violence hit. Apparently, he was deemed “
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/10/soldiers.charged/index.html
U.S. military names soldiers charged in rape, murder probe
Additional Wikipedia information on this story…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abeer_Qasim_Hamza
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_D._Green
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