Unwicked

High School Photo of Sgt. Paul Cortez

from The Army Times

As reported by Tim Hall at the Telegraph Online:

Sergeant Paul Cortez, 24, admitted he was among five soldiers who broke into an Iraqi home, raped the 14-year-old girl, then shot her and her family and set fire to the house.

Cortez was eligible for the death penalty, but was spared after agreeing to testify against three other soldiers. He will be jailed in a military prison in the US, and under army rules will be eligible for parole after 10 years.

Here’s why he’s our man.

He said he could not explain why he took part.

“I still don’t have an answer,” Cortez told the judge.

“I don’t know why. I wish I hadn’t. The lives of four innocent people were taken. I want to apologize for all of the pain and suffering I have caused the al-Janabi family.”

And…

They decided Abeer Kassem Hamza al-Janabi would make a good target for the plan to “have sex with an Iraqi female” because her father was the only man in the house, Cortez told the military court.

Cortez told how he and a fellow soldier, James Barker, took turns raping the girl.

This from Milon Nagi at The Women’s Media Center:

Sgt. Paul Cortez, the second soldier to plead guilty to the rape and murder of Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, as well as the murder of her parents and sister, was sentenced on Thursday, February 22, to 100 years in prison and a dishonorable discharge. Under the terms of a plea agreement made before the court martial took place, Cortez avoided life imprisonment without possibility of parole in sentencing handed down by the judge, Colonel Stephen Henley.

Instead, confirmed defense attorney William Cassara after the court martial, Cortez, like Spc. James Barker before him, will be eligible for parole in10 years, in accordance with military regulations that stipulate parole eligibility after 10 years in all sentences of more than 30 years.

Nagi shows fairness in her reporting when she raises this key point:

Several soldiers testified about the harsh conditions under which Cortez and his colleagues served in Iraq. According to an expert witness, Dr. Charles Figley, Cortez may have been suffering from combat stress injuries in the period preceding the crimes, which occurred on March 12, 2006. Cortez, the court heard, had been particularly distraught following the combat deaths of five close colleagues within a few weeks time in December 2005. According to a “Sanity Board” report cited by the prosecution, the experience ultimately resulted in a misguided desire for revenge on the innocent family. In the report, Cortez describes what was going through his mind while he raped Abeer: “(I thought) ‘what the f— am I doing’. At the same time I didn’t care either. I wanted her to feel the pain of the dead soldiers.”

I appreciate the idea that these soldiers are in hellish conditions. But that also extends to the people who are attacking us, does it not? If we are going to make allowances for people who are trained to deal with the stress of combat, I feel we should extend that same understanding to the people who are living in a country that has been torn to pieces for the better part of two decades by their despot, by sanctions, and by the might of the U.S. military and the deadly havoc of civil war.