It is very important that the discussion focus not just on the people involved. They have been thrust into a situation that is delusional, everyone trapped in a version of "The Panic Room," except it's not a place where one can go in and close out the realities of persistent threat. Even if the perpetrators did plan the attack well in advance, that doesn't change the delusional nature of the situation. Emotions can be fueled and refueled over many days as evidenced by the Muslims who have served as suicide bombers and suicide fighters. Such behavior is not sanity, but the result of a society that has drifted into a chaos of irrationality due to dysfunction and delusion. That has happened to some GIs in Iraq.
Never can we condone the behavior. We must seek the deeper answer to fully understand how it happened. It happened because two delusional leaders, Cheney and Rummy, harbored a dream of American conquest since the 1960s and were able to marginalize Henry Kissinger in the Ford administration, but they were not allowed to take over. Finally, "under" the GW administration, they became the grand designers of foreign policy after being handed the gift of 9/11 that justified their scheme of extending US power in the Middle East. Afghanistan was not enough. They wanted the real estate of Iraq, perfectly situated for domination of the region. They felt so strongly that they were willing to sacrifice American soldiers lives for their own narrow views, which they must consider to be a gifted reading of the world situation. It should be clear to everyone that they are tragically incompetent and trapped in world view of the 1940s.
Put blame, then, where it belongs. All of the GIs are just pawns in the game. They are trained to fight and kill. They are not trained as ambassadors, social workers, or counselors. They are mainly not well educated. Many of them might be unemployed if not in the military. They are not qualified to deal with complexity. Faced with great emotional stress, some will crack and do extremely stupid things that everyone will later regret.
Ask who is responsible for putting them in the present situation. Then assign blame in a rational way instead of allowing this single incident to dominate all thinking. The negative repercussions should all be collected and delivered to the doorstep of those whose arrogant incompetence has caused us to be there in the first place. Lay at the feet of Cheney and Rummy and demand they have nothing further to do with the war.

Channing
Ventura CA USA

because of the brutality of it, and that Green was a psychopathic killer, but what excuse does the other soldier who also raped her have and the other two or three soldiers involved in the planning? They can't all plead they're crazy. It's just blind, furious hate that drives men to commit crimes such as these. They all need to be prosecuted for these murders and the rape to the fullest extent of the law.

Powder Monkey, there was a coverup after the murders--how high it will go up the chain of command isn't known at this time. It will have repercussions if the military does a thorough investigation of the case. Will they, or will there be successful attempts to hush it up by limiting it to only the few enlisted men directly involved in the planning and the killings?

By the way, Sean, Pat's post is an elevated comment I made on his blog, synthesising the evidence that there were lots of questions about the chain of command of this unit, and a cover-up attempt to at least the company level. Blog world is a small world sometimes.

You can find the FBI charges against Green on Findlaw, though it describes the victim as 25, not 15. And Talkleft has a good comment thread dissecting the case.

Most interesting, is just what were the circumstances of this unit, and just what happened with the revenge abductions and killings of platoon mates for this crime? In my mind this crime, the planning of, and the aftermath, is a huge story that has not properly been told, and part of the larger story of "broken army".