Four more U.S. soldiers have been charged with rape and murder and a fifth with dereliction of duty in the alleged rape-slaying of a young Iraqi woman and the killings of her relatives in Iraq, the military said Sunday.  Ex-soldier Steven D. Green was arrested last week in North Carolina and has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and four counts of murder.  The U.S. statement said the five soldiers still on active duty will face an Article 32 investigation, similar to a grand jury hearing in civilian law. The Article 32 proceeding will determine whether there is enough evidence to place them on trial.

According to the FBI affidait, Green and at atleast two other soldiers targeted the teenaged girl and her family a week before the attack.  The affidavit claims the soldiers drank alcohol, abandoned their checkpoints, changed clothes, and then proceded with the rape and murder.  Doctors at the Iraqi hospital said the rape victim was about 14 years old.  Green is accused of raping the woman and killing her and her three relatives - one of which a little girl around the age of 5.

This incident and all others like this one is a true disgrace to the U.S. military and the U.S. in general.  This almost makes me ashamed to be an American.  I don't see how a trained soldier by the greatest army in the world could do such a horrific act.  Now this really makes the war in Iraq so much more difficult to win.  As it is we are judged very poorly by all the other countries in the world because of this war.  We are being viewed as the "bad guys" here, not the Iraqi's.  There is no excuse for this sort of action to go on especially in the U.S. military.  We need to send a message to all our armed forces by prosecuting these men to the fullest extent so that this kind of behavior will absolutely not be tolerated.