Never to be forgotten

[Unkotare]

BBC News | Sci/Tech | Japanese war criminals make Web apology

 

[Unkotare]

Japanese Prime Minister Apologizes to China for World War II Agressions | PBS NewsHour | April 22, 2005 | PBS

 

[Unkotare]

Nanjing – Listen up and put it to bed ~ Lost Laowai China Blog

 

[whitehall]

A sad story, but maybe you and other Americans would be better served remembering THIS...



Ex-U.S. soldier found guilty in Iraqi rape, deaths

Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi (عبير قاسم حمزه الجناب&#1610 (February 28, 1992 - March 12, 2006) was an Iraqi girl who, at the age of 14 years, was gang-raped and murdered together with her 5-year-old sister, mother and father, in their home, by U.S. soldiers who then set fire to the building before decamping.

Abeer Qassim Hamza at the age of seven.

Abeer means "fragrance of flowers." She was 14 years old.

When four American soldiers, two dressed in Iraqi mufti and not uniforms, appeared at the Al-Janabi farmhouse on the afternoon of March 12, 2006, they were not entirely unexpected. Abeer had told her mother that some of the Americans at the checkpoint were being sexually aggressive toward her and her mother, fearing for her safety, had been making her stay home.

Among the soldiers entering the house was Private First Class Steven Green, a 21-year-old boy-man and petulant loner with a history of drug and alcohol problems and a petty criminal record back in Midland, the titular home of the Bush family in Texas oil patch country.

Green had been in Iraq for only a few weeks when he was found to have "homicidal ideations" when he was sent to an Army Combat Stress team on December 21, 2005. Nevertheless, he was sent back into combat.

In February 2006, Green matter-of-factly told a reporter for Stars & Stripes that he had come to Iraq "because I wanted to kill people" and bragged that he had "shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing. Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza'."

Green was being medicated with small doses of Seroquel, a mood-altering drug, to control his demons, and still was sent back into combat. Bravo Company's commander, Captain James Goodwin, later said that conditions were so bad and his men so numbed from months of combat that he "almost had a nervous breakdown" and had to spend a few days chilling in the Green Zone in Baghdad before resuming command of the beleaguered unit.


By March 2006, the men of Bravo Company seemed to be near the breaking point. There was bitter complaining that they were being forced to spend up to 30 days straight working and sleeping at undermanned checkpoints instead of three- to five-day rotations back to Camp Striker, their barracks in an abandoned potato processing plant that had burned the previous month, adding to the unit's reputation as a "hard-luck" outfit.

With two of Bravo Company's respected and experienced senior NCOs away on leave, Green set about planning mischief.

According to an affidavit prepared by FBI Special Agent Frank Charles and other accounts, on the evening of March 11, Green talked up the idea of going to Abeer's house and raping her. Then, on the following morning, he and several buddies played cards and got drunk on black market Iraqi whiskey, a violation of war-zone policy.

After hitting some golf balls behind the checkpoint, an intoxicated Green again brought up the idea of raping Abeer, changed into Iraqi civilian clothing and made arrangements for a buddy to monitor the radio at the checkpoint so he and his confederates could go "kill and hurt a lot of Iraqis."

Once at Abeer's house Green herded her father, mother and Hadil, her 7-year-old sister, into a bedroom. Abeer’s brothers, Ahmad and Muhammad, were at school.

Green shot the father several times in the head, the mother several times in the abdomen and the sister several times in the head and shoulder with an AK-47 that the family was legally allowed to keep in the house, proudly announcing to his buddies, "I just killed them, all are dead."
Green then turned on Abeer, whom U.S. officials initially claimed was 20 or 25. As if that justified what happened next.

Abeer's dressing gown and bra were torn from her body and her legs tied. Green and two other soldiers then took turns raping her. By the time they had finished, blood was flowing from her vagina. Green then shot Abeer in the head two or three times, threw a blanket over her torso and set her body afire in a crude effort to cover up the atrocity.

Back at the checkpoint, Green burned his blood-drenched clothing and swore everyone to secrecy.

You can find outrageous conduct if you look hard enough and you can turn it into hateful dialog if you are full of hatred. Maybe union educated Americans don't understand the difference between the rape of Nanking and the rape of an Iraqi girl. Think about it.... That's long enough. The difference is that the greatest Country in the world doesn't tolerate such conduct and the Americans who committed the vicious criminal act will be brought to justice.

 

[Bfgrn]

A sad story, but maybe you and other Americans would be better served remembering THIS...



Ex-U.S. soldier found guilty in Iraqi rape, deaths

Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi (عبير قاسم حمزه الجناب&#1610 (February 28, 1992 - March 12, 2006) was an Iraqi girl who, at the age of 14 years, was gang-raped and murdered together with her 5-year-old sister, mother and father, in their home, by U.S. soldiers who then set fire to the building before decamping.

Abeer Qassim Hamza at the age of seven.

Abeer means "fragrance of flowers." She was 14 years old.

When four American soldiers, two dressed in Iraqi mufti and not uniforms, appeared at the Al-Janabi farmhouse on the afternoon of March 12, 2006, they were not entirely unexpected. Abeer had told her mother that some of the Americans at the checkpoint were being sexually aggressive toward her and her mother, fearing for her safety, had been making her stay home.

Among the soldiers entering the house was Private First Class Steven Green, a 21-year-old boy-man and petulant loner with a history of drug and alcohol problems and a petty criminal record back in Midland, the titular home of the Bush family in Texas oil patch country.

Green had been in Iraq for only a few weeks when he was found to have "homicidal ideations" when he was sent to an Army Combat Stress team on December 21, 2005. Nevertheless, he was sent back into combat.

In February 2006, Green matter-of-factly told a reporter for Stars & Stripes that he had come to Iraq "because I wanted to kill people" and bragged that he had "shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing. Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza'."

Green was being medicated with small doses of Seroquel, a mood-altering drug, to control his demons, and still was sent back into combat. Bravo Company's commander, Captain James Goodwin, later said that conditions were so bad and his men so numbed from months of combat that he "almost had a nervous breakdown" and had to spend a few days chilling in the Green Zone in Baghdad before resuming command of the beleaguered unit.


By March 2006, the men of Bravo Company seemed to be near the breaking point. There was bitter complaining that they were being forced to spend up to 30 days straight working and sleeping at undermanned checkpoints instead of three- to five-day rotations back to Camp Striker, their barracks in an abandoned potato processing plant that had burned the previous month, adding to the unit's reputation as a "hard-luck" outfit.

With two of Bravo Company's respected and experienced senior NCOs away on leave, Green set about planning mischief.

According to an affidavit prepared by FBI Special Agent Frank Charles and other accounts, on the evening of March 11, Green talked up the idea of going to Abeer's house and raping her. Then, on the following morning, he and several buddies played cards and got drunk on black market Iraqi whiskey, a violation of war-zone policy.

After hitting some golf balls behind the checkpoint, an intoxicated Green again brought up the idea of raping Abeer, changed into Iraqi civilian clothing and made arrangements for a buddy to monitor the radio at the checkpoint so he and his confederates could go "kill and hurt a lot of Iraqis."

Once at Abeer's house Green herded her father, mother and Hadil, her 7-year-old sister, into a bedroom. Abeer’s brothers, Ahmad and Muhammad, were at school.

Green shot the father several times in the head, the mother several times in the abdomen and the sister several times in the head and shoulder with an AK-47 that the family was legally allowed to keep in the house, proudly announcing to his buddies, "I just killed them, all are dead."
Green then turned on Abeer, whom U.S. officials initially claimed was 20 or 25. As if that justified what happened next.

Abeer's dressing gown and bra were torn from her body and her legs tied. Green and two other soldiers then took turns raping her. By the time they had finished, blood was flowing from her vagina. Green then shot Abeer in the head two or three times, threw a blanket over her torso and set her body afire in a crude effort to cover up the atrocity.

Back at the checkpoint, Green burned his blood-drenched clothing and swore everyone to secrecy.

You can find outrageous conduct if you look hard enough and you can turn it into hateful dialog if you are full of hatred. Maybe union educated Americans don't understand the difference between the rape of Nanking and the rape of an Iraqi girl. Think about it.... That's long enough. The difference is that the greatest Country in the world doesn't tolerate such conduct and the Americans who committed the vicious criminal act will be brought to justice.

Sometimes that is true, but too often it is not the case.

But that is of little solace to any surviving family and friends of Abeer Qassim Hamza. The 14 year old girl whose name meant "fragrance of flowers" and her whole immediate family was erased forever from the face of the earth.

We had no right to be there, Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks on 9/11. Bush's invasion of Iraq was just as despicable as Hirohito's sneak attack on Pearl Harbor.

But for mindless uneducated nationalists like you, the only evil in this world is foreign nationals. But you are oblivious to the fact that you and they are exactly the SAME.

The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them.
George Orwell

 

[Unkotare]

Please tell us more about your personal political bias, bfgrn! After all, that's what every thread on any subject is really about. Tell us more about your personal political bias on other unrelated subjects as well. That's what everyone really wants to discuss everywhere and at all times. Don't leave us hungry for more of you, you, you.

 

[Bfgrn]

Please tell us more about your personal political bias, bfgrn! After all, that's what every thread on any subject is really about. Tell us more about your personal political bias on other unrelated subjects as well. That's what everyone really wants to discuss everywhere and at all times. Don't leave us hungry for more of you, you, you.

Thank you for the invitation. It's the least you can do, considering I saved your thread from oblivion...

I, unlike some people who posted on this thread read the whole OP.

Xia Shuqin's painful story sounded eerily like the sad story of Abeer Qassim Hamza I read about a few years ago. But the perpetrators of the rape and murder of Xia Shuqin's family were Japanese soldiers and the perpetrators of the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza and her family were American soldiers. So these horrible crimes against humanity are not the exclusive domain of one nation.

As I read farther, it says that Tokyo says it has “deep remorse and heartfelt apology always engraved in mind” over its role in the war.

“Japan candidly acknowledges that during a certain period in its history, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries,” says the foreign ministry.

But, Xia has spent the last 12 years fighting Japanese deniers through the courts; fringe analysts and ultraconservative politicians in Japan dispute that atrocities ever took place in the city, known as Nanking at the time.

In a Japanese court in 2007, she successfully sued Shudo Higashinakano, a professor at Tokyo’s Asia University, and his publisher for claiming she was a fraud, winning 4.5 million yen ($55,000 at current rates) in compensation.

In another case involving a second book, a court in Nanjing awarded her 1.6 million yuan ($250,000) for defamation.

The publishing house defends both books as “genuine academic research”, while Higashinakano has told AFP that the figure of 300,000 deaths was a claim “politically motivated by the Chinese Communist Party”.

Xia’s lawyers are seeking to have a Tokyo court enforce the Nanjing ruling.

“If it is accepted, this will deliver a strong message to the right-wing Japanese massacre deniers,” said Tan Zhen, of Jiangsu FD Yongheng law firm.


So unfortunately, Japan and China have the same problems America has...fringe analysts, ultraconservative politicians and right-wing massacre deniers.


What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?
Mahatma Gandhi

 

[gipper]

I think we can conclude that war should be avoided at all costs. Unfortunately history tells us that people will accept the lies presented by their leaders and go to war causing terrible death and suffering.

America like most nations throughout history has been led by many corrupt and fallible leaders. Why we give so much power to one man is beyond me.

 

[koshergrl]

Yes. Japan and China are JUST like the US. Everyone says so.

 

[Bfgrn]

Yes. Japan and China are JUST like the US. Everyone says so.

“Japan candidly acknowledges that during a certain period in its history, Japan, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries,” says the foreign ministry.

It seems Japan has come to terms with the damage and suffering their Imperialism caused. America is no where close to admitting the same.

 

[koshergrl]

That's because we're not Japanese.

 

[koshergrl]

And there's nothing to apologize for.

 

[Bfgrn]

And there's nothing to apologize for.

Nothing? Really??

"The enemy aggressor is always pursuing a course of larceny, murder, rapine and barbarism. We are always moving forward with high mission, a destiny imposed by the Deity to regenerate our victims, while incidentally capturing their markets; to civilize savage and senile and paranoid peoples, while blundering accidentally into their oil wells."
John T. Flynn - As We Go Marching 1944

Bush Sought 'Way' To Invade Iraq

Paul O'Neill - George Bush's Treasury Secretary

10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11.

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying 'Go find me a way to do this,'" says O'Neill. "For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the U.S. has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap."

And that came up at this first meeting, says O'Neill, who adds that the discussion of Iraq continued at the next National Security Council meeting two days later.

He got briefing materials under this cover sheet. "There are memos. One of them marked, secret, says, 'Plan for post-Saddam Iraq,'" adds Suskind, who says that they discussed an occupation of Iraq in January and February of 2001. Based on his interviews with O'Neill and several other officials at the meetings, Suskind writes that the planning envisioned peacekeeping troops, war crimes tribunals, and even divvying up Iraq's oil wealth.

He obtained one Pentagon document, dated March 5, 2001, and entitled "Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield contracts," which includes a map of potential areas for exploration.

"It talks about contractors around the world from, you know, 30-40 countries. And which ones have what intentions," says Suskind. "On oil in Iraq."

 

[koshergrl]

Moron.

 

[Bfgrn]

Moron.

You are making quite an argument...

The only problem is what you are proving...

 

[koshergrl]

I don't feel compelled to argue against someone who is mentally ill. Seriously. You obviously spend all your time thinking up new reasons to hate the US. There's not much to be done with that. Have fun. We hate you too.

 

[Bfgrn]

I don't feel compelled to argue against someone who is mentally ill. Seriously. You obviously spend all your time thinking up new reasons to hate the US. There's not much to be done with that. Have fun. We hate you too.

I love my country. That is why I have much higher expectations than you.

But folks like you are incapable of understanding.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations.
Edmund Burke

 

[koshergrl]

No, you don't. You are moved by an obsession to denigrate, hate and drag it down.

You're a fucking weirdo. It's not even a matter of having a different opinion than, well, pretty much everyone with a brain. You're a freak. I imagine you take strong meds and have been on suicide watch at least once in your lifetime. Probably more.

 

[Bfgrn]

No, you don't. You are moved by an obsession to denigrate, hate and drag it down.

You're a fucking weirdo. It's not even a matter of having a different opinion than, well, pretty much everyone with a brain. You're a freak. I imagine you take strong meds and have been on suicide watch at least once in your lifetime. Probably more.

WOW, now you are getting desperate. Keep projecting...

 

[koshergrl]

No, not desperate. Just not willing to entertain your insanity. It doesn't need more air, it needs less.