US Killing Iraqis "For Their Own Good"

Here's a story that epitomizes everything that is wrong with the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

The BBC reports that a US soldier is on trial for murder after killing an Iraqi 'in pity'. A fellow US soldier said the Iraqi "had half his brain hanging out, there was nothing more that could be done for him."

The innocent Iraqi man was driving a car. US troops fired at the vehicle because "they thought it was carrying militants linked to the radical Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr".

Surprise, surprise - the US soldiers were wrong. Again. Indeed this war has made the old joke that "military intelligence" is a contradiction seem truer than ever before.

So the Iraqi died because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, because violence is flaring across Iraq, because the US troops are seen as unwanted occupiers, because the Bush administration has set up an unrepresentative, unpopular puppet government and is building 14 massive permanent troop stations across Iraq, etc etc.

Those who support the war will no doubt argue that the soldier did the right thing, even though they also probably argue that abortion is always wrong, even in cases of severe deformity, rape, incest, etc.

But for me, this story really symbolises the whole US treatment of Iraq. Perhaps my feelings could best be captured in a cartoon: a bloodied man (representing Iraq) kneeling in the desert sands while a US soldier points a gun to his head and says, "It's for his own good."