Iraqi, 15, 'drowned after soldiers forced him into canal'

An Iraqi teenager drowned after being forced by British troops to go into a canal "to teach him a lesson" after he had been found looting a court martial heard yesterday.

The soldiers watched as Ahmed Jabar Karheem, 15, who was unable to swim, began to struggle when he was ordered into the Shatt al-Basra canal in May 2003. After the boy disappeared below the surface, the soldiers drove away. His body was recovered two days later.

"Karheem was in obvious distress as he was unable to swim," Orlando Pownall QC, prosecuting, told the court martial in Colchester. "His head bobbed to the surface and then disappeared. One of the soldiers who was at the bank of the canal made as if to remove his clothing in order to rescue Karheem but then returned to the Warrior tank, which drove away."

Lance Corporal James Cooke, 22, Guardsman Joseph McCleary, 24, and Guardsman Martin McGing, 22, of the Irish Guards are charged with manslaughter with their commander, Colour Sergeant Carle Selman, 39, of the Coldstream Guards. All four deny the charges.

This case appears to highlight the total chaos that followed the "liberation" of Iraq. Lacking any plan to stabilise the country it would appear that an enormous amount of leeway was allowed to individual soldiers who became judge and jury over the Iraqi people and took advantage of their newly found powers with inevitable results.

This case does not highlight "a few bad apples", it highlights the total lack of any post war plans and the inevitable chaos that emanated from this.

At the time, Rumsfeld seemed to revel in this chaos saying stupid things like, "It's untidy, and freedom's untidy. Free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things."

It was much more than "untidy". It was chaos. And it was chaos that was caused by Rumsfeld's lack of planning for a post war situation.

We are now beginning to get glimpses of what that chaos actually meant for the individuals caught up in it.

For some, it meant death.

All of those deaths can be laid at Rumsfeld's door. In any post-war situation there is the possibility that soldiers, high on adrenaline, will behave in ways which contravene the Geneva Conventions and the rules of war.

It is for their superiors to ensure that this does not happen and that order is maintained.

In the case of Iraq, that order broke down. This resulted, not only in cases like that detailed above; it, ultimately, gave us the horrors of Abu Ghraib.

The man in charge of the Iraq war was Donald Rumsfeld. The responsibility for all of this is his.

He should be fired.

Not only for his lack of post war planning; which was, in itself, a sackable offence. More importantly, by choosing to say things like, "Freedoms untidy", he appeared to be attempting to rationalise the chaos and to make it appear the after-war norm.

By choosing to define the after war "norm" in such terms, he created the circumstances in which such abuse could flourish.

Sack him.

Tags: Iraq, Rumsfeld, abuse, Ahmed Jabar Karheem, british soldiers, drown, Iraqi, teenager,