Rashomon in Iraq

It's interesting and often instructive to compare and contrast differing accounts of the same event, as they can sometimes offer insights into the perspective of the people writing about that event. Orson Welles and Herman Mankiewicz knew this when they wrote "Citizen Kane." Akira Kurosawa understood this when he directed "Rashomon," the 1950 film that put Japanese Cinema on the map at the Cannes Film Festival.

Well, I recently read two different accounts of the same event, and I was struck by just how different they were -- and what that difference said about the respective news organizations that published them.

The stories were about the now-infamous rape and murder by American troops of a 14-year-old girl in Iraq, whose name was Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi. One story is from an Australian paper called The Age. The second account is from the Associated Press.

The headline of the Australian story is: Rape: American soldiers 'took turns'

The headline of the AP story is: Soldiers Accused of Raping, Killing Iraqi Girl Were Stressed, Comrade Testifies

Interesting distinction, don't you think?

Here's the lead paragraph of the Australian story:

"Drunken American soldiers took turns to rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, a military tribunal has heard. The men murdered her and her family and celebrated by grilling chicken wings."

Here's the lead paragraph of the AP story:

"Frequent deadly attacks by insurgents sapped morale and raised combat stress in a U.S. Army platoon that included soldiers accused of raping and murdering a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, a member of the unit testified Tuesday. "

See where we're going with this?

But wait -- it gets better.

This is the Australian paper's account of what happened, according to the testimony of Special agent Benjamin Bierce, who recounted sworn testimony given to him by one of the defendants, at the military tribunal hearing the case:

"[Former private Steven] Green is alleged to have raised the idea of killing some Iraqis. The men changed into black clothing and ski masks and told Howard to stand look-out.

The girl, Abeer Qassim Hamza al-Janabi, and her father were standing outside a house. The soldiers allegedly dragged them inside and pushed the man, his wife and younger daughter, 6, into a side room where Green stood guard over them.

Barker's statement said Cortez pushed the girl to the floor and tore off her clothes as Barker held her down. She held her knees together and struggled as Cortez tried to rape her.

A gun shot came from the side room as the men switched places. More shots were heard from the side room and Green emerged with an AK-47. He allegedly said, "They're all dead," before raping the girl and shooting her several times.

Barker said her body was set alight. Green opened the house's propane tank to set it on fire.

They burnt their clothes, threw the gun into a canal and, back at the checkpoint, brought out the chicken wings."

Note the factual nature of the account. It states what, according to one of the participants, happened at that location on that day.

Compare that with the AP account:

"Army criminal investigator Benjamin Bierce testified Monday about a sworn statement by Barker in which he spoke about a drinking session before the assault on the girl's house.

Bierce said Barker confessed in his statement that he, Cortez and Green took turns raping Abeer. Barker also claims in his graphic statement full of sexual details that Green shot and killed the girl and her family members."

Note that this account of Bierce's testimony leaves out all the "sexual details" that the Australian account provides. Also note how much shorter the AP account is that the Australian version -- 66 words, as opposed to the Australian version's 180 words. It's also much further down in the story (the expression "burying ther lead" leaps to mind).

But what's especially revealing, more so than the terseness of the grudging pair of paragraphs that the AP gives to Bierce's testimony, is the nature of what comes before it:

"Pfc. Justin Cross recounted the "mentally draining" conditions in which the unit served in Mahmoudiya south of Baghdad where Abeer Qassim al-Janabi was raped and killed along with her parents and 5-year-old sister.

"It drives you nuts. You feel like every step you might get blown up. You just hit a point where you're like, 'If I die today, I die.' You're just walking a death walk," Cross told the hearing."

Further on in the same AP piece, Cross's account continues:

"On Tuesday, Cross testified that soldiers often drank Iraqi whiskey and took painkillers to relieve the stress of not knowing whether the day would be their last.

Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, is one of the most dangerous places in Iraq, where bomb and gun attacks by insurgents take place almost daily.

Cross said the unit was "full of despair," and he himself felt he would die at a checkpoint before he could go home.

"I couldn't sleep mainly for fear we would be attacked," Cross said. He said the loss of two soldiers shot at a checkpoint "pretty much crushed the platoon.""

Gee -- don't you feel sorry for these guys? Under the circumstances, don't you think that their raping and killing a 14-year-old girl might be, well, understandable, given the stress they were under? After all, when you think you're going to be blown up any second, what's the big deal about raping and murdering a teenage girl and then killing her whole family?

The entire AP piece tries to whitewash what these soldiers did by pawning it off on stress -- it's the equivalent of the "rubber ducky scene" that Paddy Chayefsky used to complain about in 1950s live TV drama. That's the obligatory scene towards the end of the program where the psycho killer reveals that someone took his rubber ducky away when he was a kid, and that's why he's such a bad guy today.

The Australian article, without an axe to grind, says what happened according to the testimony.

The AP article, on the other hand, excuses the actions of the soldiers by blaming it all on stress -- which is an insult to all the other servicemen and women who are serving in Iraq, feeling the same sort of stress on a daily basis and who do not use it as an excuse to go around raping and murdering teenagers.

Guess which one of these pieces Fox News chose to run on their website?

Tom Moran