Weeks load of crap in one morning

Justice? A soldier convicted for his role in the rape and murder of an Iraqi teenager was sentenced to 110 years in prison. And Military prosecutors did not say Pfc. Jesse Spielman took part in the rape or murders.



The above is from a lefty type site and their link heading provides you with enough crap content to exceed your weekly allotment.



Jesse Spielman didn't get justice! Oh goodness!



Spielman will be eligible for parole in 1o years.



He didn't, for instance, get the death penalty. The death penalty was what those involved US soldiers gave to 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi got, after she was gang-raped. The death penalty is what her five-year-old sister Hadeel Qassim Hamza received. The death penalty was what her parents Qassim Hamza Raheem and Fakhriya Taha Muhasen were handed. Unlike Spielman, they are up for no parole, unlike Spielman, they had no defending attorneys. Their crime was that some sick perverts thought rape was 'fun,' thought raping a 14-year-old equaled 'more fun' and, best of all, thought they could kill Iraqis, blame it on insurgents and avoid any responsibility.



The defense whines that the soldiers had long questioning. We'll bleed a little for those prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and in the secret US prisons throughout the world first.



In the Article 32 hearing last year, here's how Capt. Alex Pickands characterized the events,

"Murder, not war. Rape, not war. That's what we're here talking about today. Not all that business about cold food, checkpoints, personnel assignments. Cold food didn't kill that family. Personnel assignments didn't rape and murder that 14-year-old little girl."



And nothing prevented Spielman from coming forward. He covered up the crimes. Paul Cortez testifed that Spielman was the lookout for the crimes and only mere feet away while Abeer was being gang-raped and the murders were taking place.



He entered guilty pleas to some charges and went to trial on others. He participated in the crimes and we're not too sorry that the lookout's going to do ten years. There's no adult male who doesn't grasp that rape is illegal in this country. Ditto murder. Had Spielman been the lookout for the same series of crimes in Memphis and not Mahmoudiya, we think his sentencing would have been even harsher.



After the gang rape, after the murder, they desecrated Abeer's body by attempting to set it on fire to destroy the evidence. They stayed silent for months. Only the kidnapping of other US soldiers (and their eventual murders) finally prompted one uninvolved soldier to come forward with his suspicions based on rumors.



Spielman will most likely walk in ten years. Abeer, her parents, her five-year-old sister won't have that gift. Abeer would have been 16-year-old this month. She didn't even live to see 15.





Spielman stated, prior to sentencing, "I could have stopped it. I take responsibility for my actions." He took part in War Crimes and he took part in covering them up.



He was the lookout for a gang-rape and four murders. He could have come forward at any time and didn't. Had he been tried in a US federal court and found guilty of the same charges, he would be looking at life in prison. No get out of jail card after ten years.



That's the reality. This wasn't a case of someone thought they were being fired upon and they fired back. This was invading a home, killing the parents, killing a young daughter, and gang-raping the older daughter before killing her. Spielman states he was only the lookout. That's backed up by testimony of others. He acted as the lookout while all of this was going on. He's responsible and "Justice?" is only warranted if you're wondering if ten years in prison is too little for what he did?



For the record, they never claimed they 'cracked' in the Article 32 hearing. They did whine about the food, they did whine about the living conditions. But there are approximately 160,000 US service members in Iraq and you better believe, male or female, the majority knows there is no excuse for leaving base (without permission), in the dead of night to go conduct War Crimes.



Nearly a year ago (November 2006), we wrote "Justice for Abeer and her family?" We find it pathetic that the bulk of the left and 'left' elected to sit out the whole issue. We find it appalling that some elements are now whining that the lookout will likely do ten years in prison.