Searching through American, English, German, and French newspapers, I bump into a story about the trial of private Steven Green, an American soldier who was just found guilty by a Kentucky court for raping and murdering an Iraqi girl of fourteen. The story takes my breath away. Soon after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, Green and a group of his mates from the 101st Airborne Division plotted a raid not far from their barracks. They were playing cards and drinking whiskey at the time. Green was only nineteen. At his instigation, they donned black ninja outfits so as to hide their identities and broke into a house some twenty miles south of Baghdad. Green first shot his victim’s father, mother, and younger sister. After he took his turn raping the girl, he shot her, too. They doused their victims with kerosene and set them alight. The whole group then returned to the barracks and celebrated their raid with a barbecue. Going through the story a few times, I feel increasingly numb. Who is this story about? Private Steven Green? All American soldiers? American nation as a whole? The human race? I am too numb to answer my own question at this very moment, but I am perfectly certain that this story has little or nothing to do with private Steven Green.