The Unknown Candidate: When Justice isn't Justice

Monday, November 20, 2006

When Justice isn't Justice

If you're an American and you're in Iraq and you kidnap and murder innocent Iraqis, have no fear. There are plea bargains for all!

Plea deals pile up for accused Marines:

In the beginning, there were eight. A squad of seven Marines and a Navy corpsman charged with kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi man, a crime described by a prosecutor as especially brutal. They faced military trials; the death penalty was possible. And now there are four. In the six months the men have been held at the Camp Pendleton brig, the profile of the Hamdania cases has changed dramatically. The death penalty is off the table and four of the defendants have struck plea bargains.

[...]

"They killed a 52-year-old crippled man in cold blood," Lt. Col. John Baker, a prosecutor, said during a recent hearing. "They killed a retired police officer with 11 children and four grandchildren. Hashim Awad was a very forgiving and gentle man. He was precisely the kind of man (the Marines were) sent to help."

This is the "justice" America exports to Iraq. This is the example we set. And we wonder why America is held in such low esteem since the reign of King George and his Merry Band of Torturers?

As Americans, if do not protest, by default we condone this. Write to your representatives ... or do nothing: the choice is yours. You and you alone define what kind of country you live in by the action you choose to take or not take.