What exactly does it take to kill someone? Here's how 21-year-old West Texas Army Pvt. Steven Green described shooting a man who refused to stop at an Iraqi checkpoint: "It was like nothing. Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody, and it's like, 'All right, let's go get some pizza,' " he told the military newspaper Stars & Stripes.
"I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.' "
In February, the soldier's comments struck embedded correspondent Andrew Tilghman as unremarkable, a reflection of the fact that he and Green were immersed in the treacherous hellhole of Mahmoudiya, at the edge of what GIs have dubbed the Triangle of Death. Green's statements didn't even make it into the Stars & Stripes article, which ran earlier this year.
It was only recently -- when the honorably discharged soldier appeared in federal court pleading not guilty to the rape of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and the cold-blooded murder of her family -- that Tilghman recalled the quotes with a newfound chill.