Iraq Asks UN to End Immunity for U.S. Troops on War Crimes

No doubt, the news that Iraq has now formally requested that the United Nations end the improperly-imposed immunity against U.S. troops for any actions that might be considered war crimes will garner much criticism by the usual suspects. After all, anytime Iraq tries to behave like a sovereign nation separate from the U.S. - which is ostensibly "why" (along with the 381 other reasons Bush gave for annihilating their way of life) we went to war there - the right wing and centrists here complain that Iraq is an ingrate, biting the hand that (doesn't exactly) feed them.

But as much as I've tried to support basic and expanded services for U.S. troops (proper health care, financial aid, proper equipping, etc.) - which notably, the Bushies and the extreme right often are more than willing to take away from them - I do NOT believe that there is any reason for any U.S. service person to commit civilian homicide, to rape, torture of prisoners, or commit any other atrocity. I'm way past tired of the "spin" put on issues like Haditha and Fallujah and how they've painted the 14 year old girl raped and shot in the head by U.S. troops allegedly as a "woman" who represented some threat to the soldiers as well as how they "spun" Pat Tillman's death.

There should be no immunity here, and the UN would be right to grant this very reasonable request.

Yet I'm also way tired to Rumsfeld and the Pentagon imposing conditions on these soldiers while Rumsfeld and the Pentagon (as well as the White House) accept no responsibility for their extreme culpability. In any bad action, Rumsfeld and Bush in my view deserve a much larger slice of the blame for any misdeed large or small than a grunt GI.