US navy seal to receive a familiar soft landing after convicted of killing innocent Muslims in Iraq

By: IBRAHIM, Jaafar.

This is hardly the first time that members of the US armed forces have been accused of committing atrocities on the ground. US-led occupation forces have committed numerous atrocities in Iraq since the invasion in 2003. The country has become synonymous with murder, rape and the multiple killing of civilians.

While some cases have been brought before military hearings, the Pentagon has covered up most of these cases and exonerated the soldiers involved. Rather than pursuing high officials and senior officers, military prosecutors have pursued only a few low-ranking soldiers. With few exceptions, most cases have yielded relatively light punishments, while the majority has seen original charges of murder downgraded to lighter charges or even dismissed completely. The United States has repeatedly insisted that these atrocities were committed by "few bad apples," obscuring the fact that troops are regularly committing such crimes under a system of unrestrained violence attributable to those at the top.

Edward Gallagher, a repeatedly decorated Navy SEAL was considered a lifesaving medic and a crack sniper. He was known for valor and cool-headed leadership during his years of combat deployments. After his latest tour, fighting Islamic State combatants in Iraq, he was named the top platoon leader in SEAL Team 7 and nominated for the Silver Star, the military’s third-highest honor.

But now, less than a year later, Chief Gallagher, 39, is facing charges that during that same deployment—february to September 2017—he shot indiscriminately at civilians, killed a teenage Islamic State fighter with a handmade custom blade, and then performed his re-enlistment ceremony posing with the teenager’s bloody corpse in front of an American flag.

The Navy has charged Gallagher with planned murder, attempted murder and nearly a dozen other offenses, including obstruction of justice and bringing “discredit upon the armed forces.” If he is convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Prior to the above report, similar ones had been recorded, like the killing in the town of Haditha, Iraq, where 24 Muslims – including a 76-year old man on a wheelchair, women, and even toddlers – were shot up and blown up in their bedclothes as they slept by US Marines. Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich admitted to telling his men to “shoot first and ask questions later," according to the New York Times.

Sgt. Wuterich and eight of his marines were charged in connection with the incident, but six had their charges dropped and one was found not guilty. Sgt. Wuterich was also eventually "claimed" not guilty of voluntary manslaughter,. "I was expecting that the American judiciary would sentence this person to life in prison and that he would appear and confess in front of the whole world that he committed this crime, so that America could show itself as democratic and fair," a survivor of the killings, Awis Fahmi Hussein, told CBS.

Abeer al-Janabi, an innocent fourteen-year old Iraqi girl was also gang-raped by five American soldiers (on March 12, 2006), who then shot her and her family in the head, then set fire to their corpses. So try to imagine this young girl being sexually assaulted by not one, not two, not three, not four, but five soldiers.

The murder of Afghans by Sergeant Bales created another scene. All of the focus in the media was on him - his life, his stress, his PTSD, the mortgage on his home - as if he was the victim. Very little sympathy was expressed for the people he actually killed, as though they were not real, they were not humans.

Other similar stories had been documented by reporters, however, those are just the stories that make it to the headlines.

Currently, Chief Gallagher denies all the charges against him. The question remains: "will justice be served for the innocent souls, or the perpetrator will walk freely without punishment as usual?"