What is more morally horrific: Saddam Hussein's mowing down of two hundred citizens in a town where they had attempted to assasinate him or US marines gunning down women, children, and infants in houses where the triggerman for a roadside bomb lurked? Come to think of it; they seem to be the exact same situation--I have been attacked; therefore, my retribution will be terrible and indiscriminate. Saddam Hussein is currently on trial for his slaughter with the outcome certain; will we ever say the same of the perpetrators of Haditha?

While the killing of civilians can possibly be contextualized by battle stress and unclear directives, the slaughter of infants simply cannot. The quotations from your article show that the soldiers, admittedly under horrific pressure, construct paranoid narratives for themselves. The boy that counted the soldiers, for instance. Couldn't he just have been doing what children do--counting? If you saw a child on a street in your hometown counting cars, you wouldn't assume he was planning to blow them up. The fact that a small minority of civilians are dangerous to the soldiers is quickly read as all civilians are dangerous and bad, which quickly declines to the justification for killing any and all of them if one's fear or stress is great enough.

We cannot "liberate" a people who we simultaneously see as the enemy--we proved this at least once already. And there is nothing in military training that equips soldiers for the subtleties of the current mission--nothing that makes soldiers unusually discriminating, compassionate, or creative in the face of danger. They are taught to be effectively violent and to obey the chain of command; they are taught, unofficially, all sorts of derogatory and objectifying terms for everyone who is not a soldier: women, members of other races, civilians, military trainees, etc. They are taught a rigorous and ball-crushing hierarchy so as to make them good soldiers, and then we are surprised when they aren't ambassadors in flak jackets.

I don't know if this means we should leave as fast as possible since this and all such missions are folly, or just transform military culture and training so it looks more like the utopian fiction of Star Fleet in Star Trek and less like the killing hordes in Gladiator and Troy. (A Captain Picard would never lose his moral compass to the point of slaughtering the innocents.) Yeah, that'll be the day.

I am the daughter of a soldier killed in action (July, 1966), who grew up in the backyard of Fort Benning during the Lt. Rusty Calley trials for the murders at My Lai. For the past few years I have befriended many of the military families being impacted by this war -- in particular the widows and children. Earlier this year I conducted an informal survey of these families. The survey dealt with the issue of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in children. One woman, the mother of three, wrote to say her husband, who is Special Ops, has deployed nine times since 9-11. Nine times.

There is a huge disconnect between the American public and the American military. Most Americans haven't a clue how these repeated deployments are affecting our soldiers, and/or their families.

That doesn't excuse what happened at Haditha, just as Calley's actions at My Lai cannot be justified.

But isn't it somewhat hypocritical to cry outrage at Haditha while we turn a blind eye to abuses inflicted by this administration's policies on our military? They keep telling us that our troops aren't being stretched thin.

Everything about this war in Iraq has been built on lies.

Karen Spears Zacharias

author, After the Flag Has Been Folded.

www.heromama.org

This kind of thing might not have happened had 'Tiger Force' been properly investigated back in 1975.

Who stopped and buried that investigation, none other than Nixon,Rumsfeld and Cheney, then Pres. Ford, Rumsfeld and Cheney.

Amazing that, and what a coincidence, or not.

The troops who did Haditha have to be punished for their behavior/war crimes. They will have this on their conscience and eating away at their minds for the rest of their lives.

But WHEN are their commanders, including Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush going to be punished for putting the troops in this situation and creating/encouraging/allowing a milieu which CAUSES this kind of thing to happen.

Let's not forget the damage done to the American peoples psyche and American prestige and our country's ability to engage in diplomacy. What about America's ability to 'win the hearts and minds' of the Iraqis' and Arab world.

And most of all what about the deaths of the innocent Iraqi's in Haditha, which is the worst of all costs of this event.

The costs are many and the damage is unforgivable. But do Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld care, Not At All. Evidence, yes and plenty of it, they just 'keep on keeping on' doing these kind of things over and over and over. 'Tiger Force' in 1967, Me Lai, Gitmo, Extreme Rendition, Torture, Abu Ghraib, never ending lies(22 at last count) to the American people as to the reasons for this war etc. etc.

Who is going to stop these three criminals?

Rove, Gingrich and Atwater what hath you wrought?

Bob DAmico

Cleve, Oh.

imgaine 1939, revisted by the USA today. After invading Poland, how many atrocities came to light also? Same thing diffrent war.

Thanks Keith for the clarification, of course she wrote it, I have the album, and Donavan sang it and made the song popular and the last verse you include in your response seems to make my point even more clearly. The decisions you make or I make or a soldier in the field of battle makes are individual. That spirit of individualism and owning the responsibility for the actions is what makes America amazing country it often is. The acceptance of orders contrary to any moral code or rational precept is what makes America the pariah is soemtimes is. By the way, she is Canadian, which is somehow even more appropo.

Bill