The United States military wins hearts and minds:

Steven Green, 22, who was discharged for a “personality disorder” before the slaying was discovered, faces the death penalty in the civil trial being held in Kentucky. He is the first former army soldier to be charged as a civilian under a law that allows prosecution for alleged crimes committed overseas. . . .

Three other soldiers were given life sentences in the March 2006 atrocity which was allegedly devised over whiskey and a game of cards at a traffic check point in Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad. A fourth soldier who acted as a lookout was sentenced to 27 months in jail.

Green told his friends he “wanted to go to a house and kill some Iraqis,” Specialist James Barker said at a court martial.

The soldiers changed into black outfits and masks so they would look like insurgents and headed for the house of a 14-year-old girl they had noticed walking through the village.

Sergeant Paul Cortez testified that he raped Abeer Kassem Hamza al-Janabi while Barker pinned the sobbing girl to the floor.

The men switched positions and then heard about four or five shots from a bedroom where Green had taken the girl’s father, mother and six-year-old sister, Cortez said.

Green shot the girl when he was finished raping her and the soldiers set the home on fire by tossing a lighter onto a Kerosine-soaked blanket covering her naked body, the other soldiers said. They then went back to their checkpoint about 200 meters away and grilled chicken wings.

Green faces 17 criminal counts – including rape, murder and obstruction of justice – in civilian court because he was discharged from the army before the allegations came to light.

This story speaks for itself so I will not have much to say about it. Except this: while it is true that most American servicemen and women are decent individuals, what really pisses me off is that American right-wingers refuse to accept any criticism of any American solider no matter how repugnant his or her’s actions may be.

People like Bill O’Reily shout down any criticism of any American troops, as if all of them were saints and the military is beyond critique.

I, of course, do not abide by such racist standards that allows Americans troops to do whatever they want to Arabs. This guy is a brutal thug and torture followed by death would be too nice. Fortunately, the U.S. military does not follow the O’Reily standard and is going after this pig.