US Soldier: "This war is for nothing"
Chilling article in the Washington Post about a US soldier accused of rape and murder of a 14 year old Iraqi girl. The conditions he dealt with daily in Iraq were stressful to the extreme but when the soldiers themselves don't understand why they are there, the good become callous and the callous become brutal.
Telling quotes from the accused:
"I came over here because I wanted to kill people."
"I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing"
Speaking of some Iraqi's he was having tea with: "I wouldn't really care if all these guys got waxed."
And perhaps most telling of all:
"See, this war is different from all the ones that our fathers and grandfathers fought. Those wars were for something. This war is for nothing."