so, when exactly does it become an atrocity to kill innocent civilians in the name of defending our country? Haditha? Ishadi? Hamandiyah? or is it only an atrocity if the high command can be proven to have been involved? i can understand and accept the fact that soldiers under constant stress will occasionally lash out without thinking through the obvious ramifications. they have been trained to kill, not persuade. they are the ones living in continual fear and lacking immediate leadership.
but now news and evidence of multiple executions in different places by different units are coming to light. with abu ghraib it became apparant long before the military almost admitted it that soldiers were not acting solely on their own. much of what they did was directed by people high up in the military food chain. and it was atrocious.
with that in mind, can anyone truely believe that what is being read about now is not, also, being directed by those who sit safely within cozy offices stateside and care even less about the soldiers than they do the civilians?
our military command has declared its soldiers innocent of any wrongdoing in the Ishadi event. But how can we take them at their word? one only has to go back to the Pat Tillman bullshit to know that the military will lie to God if that gets the press off its back. why do we see no independent inquiries? we should know better by now. it's like asking the scorpion what happened to the frog. it is the military's nature to lie about everything and cover up any badness that may occur by its hands, rahter than tell us that something bad may have happened and then getting to the bottom of it. many liberals would actually look on the military in a more compassionate mien if they could believe that the high standards we hold other countries to were actually being applied at home.
also, the fact that these stories are now leaking out proves (to me) that the situation in Iraq is getting worse and worse. these can't be isolated cases. history will show that when the dam begins to overflow it was already too full a long time ago.