Law is full of stories. After all, that is exactly what cases are. One such story takes place in Iraq on the fateful day of March 12, 2006. In the town of Mahmudiyah, approximately 50 miles from Baghdad, 5 US soldiers aided and took part in the gang-rape and murder of 14 year old Abeer Qasim Hamza Al-Janabi. Their method was particularly brutal and chilling; they had been drinking alcohol while discussing raping Al-Janabi at their checkpoint headquarters. They decided to go to her house in daylight hours, wearing plain clothes so they wouldn’t be recognised and the 5 soldiers named as Sergeant Paul E Cortez, Specialist James P Barker, Private Steven D Green, Private Jesse V Spielman and Private Brian L Howard proceeded to separate Abeer Qasim from the rest of the family.

The rest of the family present at the time of the murder were her mother, her father and her 6 year old sister. Green went into the room with Abeer Qasim’s family and shot them dead. He then returned to the room with Abeer Qasim where she was held down on the floor by one soldier, already raped once by Sergeant Cortez and Specialist Barker, while Green and another soldier raped her again while Private Howard acted as the lookout. Green finished off his heinous act by shooting Abeer Qasim “2 to 3 times” (according to Cortez) in the head and then burning her body from the stomach down to her feet in order to wipe out any trace before fleeing the scene. The fire from Abeer Qasim’s body spread to the rest of the house and soon Abeer Qasim’s uncle was alerted that his farmhouse was burning. He arrived along with the neighbours to see the farmhouse burnt down and the dead bodies of the family members. One neighbour recalled “The poor girl, she was so beautiful she lay there, one leg was stretched and the other bent and her dress was lifted up to her neck.”

Justice
Soon, the uncle went to Iraqi soldiers who in turn went to US soldiers. The US soldiers that arrived on the scene were told by Green and company that it was the actions of Sunni insurgents who wanted to destabilise Iraq and had committed the rape and murder as vengeance against the American soldiers. The crime was discovered by chance when one soldier who had not taken part in the gang-rape and murder but was aware of it happening, revealed the whole story while under psychological counselling. The men were arrested and subsequently charged and convicted. The story continued to unfold when it was later found out that the soldiers routinely searched the farmhouse and on one occasion Green ran a finger down Abeer Qasim’s cheek, something which terrified her. The soldiers used to watch her from their checkpoint (the farmhouse was 100 metres from the military checkpoint) as she did her chores sometimes giving her mother the thumbs-up and saying “very good, very good”. Private Green received a life sentence with no possibility of parole, a judgement which he is appealing. Specialist James Barker received 90 years imprisonment with parole possible after 20 years. Sergeant Paul Cortez was sentenced to 100 years with parole possible after 10 years. Private Jesse Spielman was sentenced to 110 years in prison with parole possible after 10 years and finally Private Howard was sentenced to 27 months in prison. He is currently out on parole.

The moral of the story
War is no joke as evident by the countless number of lives that continue to be lost while the two leading Governments in the western world sit on their laurels yet every day, we see war being glorified whether it’s in video games or on TV and we continue to buy into this notion that war is glorious and necessary. Many lives have been lost and continue to be lost whether the many soldiers stationed there die needlessly or whether it’s the Iraqi citizens who have committed the crime of being Iraqi that are getting killed through bombs accidentally exploding or mistaken identity by the soldiers.

The point of this story is a simple one: to remind ourselves as law students that law deals with real people and real situations and it is alive and more interesting than ever. The Iraqi War has led to more problems than solutions and this case is just one example of numerous incidents that have occurred in Iraq since the USA and the UK decided in their infinite wisdom to go to war. One of the reasons given by Specialist James Barker for his actions was that the violence he had faced in Iraq had left him “angry and mean” towards the Iraqis. The retaliation from the many terrorist groups working in Iraq was almost immediate. On July 11 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council showed a video of the torture and beheading of two American soldiers serving as “revenge for our sister who was dishonored by a soldier of the same brigade.” Further attacks were followed by Jaysh Al-Mujahidin and the Islamic Army in Iraq.

Conclusion
I hope this piece of writing seeks to illustrate the horrors of war and reiterate that the Iraqi War is still ongoing even if it’s not being focused on by the news stations anymore. People are still dying while the western world looks on with hardly a glance back to the damage created. It has been so aptly put by Chris Hedges and later used in The Hurt Locker that “war is a drug” yet it does not have to be. There is a solution which involves pulling out as soon as possible. Unfortunately this solution is not very viable. The western world needs oil after all.

Mohammad Ali Askari is in the second year of a Law LLB