does this make sense?

no, but very few things do these days

U.S. Soldiers Lightly Punished for Iraqi Abuses, Reports Dayton Paper

Published: October 04, 2005 11:07 AM ET
DAYTON, Ohio Charges against U.S. Army soldiers in Iraq accused of crimes against Iraqis are dismissed or withdrawn at a higher rate than charges in which the victims are fellow soldiers or civilian military employees, a newspaper reported. An analysis by the Dayton Daily News of previously undisclosed records from the Army Court-Martial Management Information System database found that 226 U.S. soldiers were charged with offenses between the first deployments in March 2003 and Jan. 1, 2005. Of the 1,038 separate charges, fewer than one in 10 involved crimes against Iraqis. Virtually all of the rest involved crimes against other soldiers, property drug or alcohol offenses, and violations of military rules, the Daily News said. Charges involving Iraqi victims were three times more likely to be dismissed or withdrawn by the Army than cases in which the victims were fellow soldiers or civilian military employees -- 44% compared with 15%, the newspaper said. The Daily News also said that despite evidence and convictions in some cases in which the victims were Iraqis, only a small percentage resulted in punishments approaching those routinely imposed for such crimes by civilian justice systems. The newspaper cited one case in which two U.S. soldiers were convicted of robbing an Iraqi shopkeeper. One soldier was sentenced to five months' confinement and the other to one month. The median sentence imposed for all types of robbery in the United States, with or without the use of firearms, is five years.“I've been surprised at some of the lenient sentences,” said Gary Solis, a former military judge and prosecutor who teaches military law at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. “I have an uneasy suspicion that it relates to the nationality of the victim.”Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Pamela Hart defended the Army's handling of criminal cases in Iraq, saying every allegation of abuse is investigated. “Each investigation is unique and has various facts and circumstances,” Hart said yesterday. “When wrongdoings are revealed, the commanders do punish appropriately. ”Solis said criminal acts by soldiers -- and the lack of punishment -- could add to the hatred fueling insurgents in Iraq, putting soldiers at greater risk.........