Steven Green wanted to “kill ‘em all”
Monday, 31 July 2006 | 200 readers so far
Steven Green stands accused of horrible crimes. Combat stress can do some terrible things to the human mind, but it seems from reports like this young man went wrong a long time before he arrived in Iraq.
Green clearly faced daily danger. He watched fellow soldiers die in front of him.
He described how after an attack on their traffic checkpoint, he and several others pushed one wounded man into the back seat of a Humvee and put Casica, who had a bullet wound in his throat, on the truck’s hood. Green flung himself across Casica to keep the dying soldier from falling off as they sped back to the base.
“We were going, like, 55 miles an hour and I was hanging on to him. I was like, ‘Sgt. Casica, Sgt. Casica.’ He just moved his eyes a little bit,” Green related with a breezy candor. “I was just laying on top of him, listening to him breathing, telling him he’s okay. I was rubbing his chest. I was looking at the tattoo on his arm. He had his little girl’s name tattooed on his arm.
None of what he experienced excuses the crime he is accused of. The wheels of justice are turning, but there are many unanswered questions, not least of which is - how could a crime like this have been pulled off? Where were the NCOs and officers? What happened to the moral compasses of those involved, assuming they had them to begin with?
1 August 1st, 2006 at 4:39 am
Elizabeth says:
All the Army had to do was a basic assessment interview, and ask for a few references, like a job, and they would screen out these people. Obviously they do not care.
It is interesting that Green found several other people to go along with him, right in his own unit. That shows that psychopathy is not that uncommon. But why would we be surprised? People on this very blog have made vicious and racist statements. It’s not much of a line to cross, when you start thinking of other people as being less than human, to assault or even to kill them.
2 August 1st, 2006 at 9:20 am
Trevor says:
There are problems with Army recruiting.
The essential problem is that recruiters have quotas and they are under pressure to make their numbers. You’ll find this in the civilian world too. However, salespeople in the civilian world aren’t selling jobs that come with very lethal weapons and a license to kill.
The basic process for screening recruits is mostly sound, if all the rules are followed. However, the paperwork is easy to lie on. The military does ask for character references. They ask again if you are being screened for a security clearance. But of course, the process is far from perfect.
I’ll be quite frank - the military has a long way to go in learning how to treat people like human beings. Obviously, going into combat is stressful and you have to be able to react quickly and follow orders that might get you killed. That isn’t an excuse for any of the actions that are alleged to have happened in Mamoudiyah.
3 August 3rd, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Steve Lamb says:
I met Steve Green in Clarksville Tennessee while he was in route to his freinds funerals, he seemed troubled but socially acceptable. We had a few Jagerbombs and talked about how he felt in Iraq and about those people he was sent to protect. Never once did he mention his crime but did say that he looked at Iraq’s people like dogs and after seeing the Nick Berg video, I myself didnt care how many died or how it was done. The tattoo he has on his chest reflects his feelings about what happened over there and how he felt about it, as he had it put on after his discharge,it reads “NEVER AGAIN” We get caught up in the moment sometimes in life and seeing what is done to our guys and gals over there , I can see where one could lose his rational way of thinking but this is war … there are no rules as far as im concerned , they have none so why do we? If you can live with your crime Steve so can I .. God bless you man
4 August 8th, 2006 at 2:21 am
Tito says:
When his guilty verdict is read I hope he is sentenced to a gang a$$-raping and then set his chest and head on fire.
I too was changed by the Nick Berg video, but I am pretty sure this 14 year old girl and 5 year old sister did nothing of the sort. WTF?!
You are one person I would not hesitate to execute, Mr. Green. The world is better off without you.