The atrocities in Darfur and the Congo and Somalia and Tibet are deplorable. They are not, however, being committed in my name, with my money, but my countrymen.

Chaumont, you're quite right of course that in wartime men who would be perfectly decent and law-abiding people in civilian life do unspeakable things, partly out of fear, partly for "payback," partly from a sense of entitlement (the rapes of French women that you describe, for example; I imagine the thinking went, "we liberated them, they should be grateful, they owe us.") But in World War II, at least there was a legitimate casus belli. If we weigh the cost-benefit ratio of American involvement in the war, with all of the deaths, war crimes and moral degradation that it involved for our men, it was still worth it to help defeat Hitler. In Iraq, there is no legitimate casus belli, it's a war of unprovoked aggression, and the men who set the horror in motion should answer for it at the Hague.

I'm glad we have some, brave young men doing their duty.

Funny how you liberals are just panting for atrocities. There are plenty in Darfur and the Congo and Somalia and Tibet.

...are the ones who should pay the price for this kind of situation. These men who actually did it should also pay some price but they are in an impossible situation, especially given the 100 pound packs, no sleep, very little rest and the sweltering heat that most Americans are not used to. Dehydration makes for rotten judgment.

But Ford pardoned Nixon, and that began the chain of irresponsibility that now permeates the Republican Party who just seems to always think they are above the law and can do anything they so choose because they consider themselves to be the law, ala the Unitary Executive monarchical mindset. Bush thinks he is above the law but the cold and calculating Bush family mindset supports that kind of thinking.

Nixon was the first high level Republican/ politician that ' if the prez does it it's okay isn't it (my paraphrasing) and Ford by pardoning him assented to that idea. Then along came St. Reagan (the anointed high priest of the Repub party), Daddy Bush and Oliver North who carried on in the tradition of the cold, dead and disturbed Repub party and kept pushing that envelope. Instead of being the Moral Majority as they claimed/claim they really became the immoral majority. That mindset leads to holocaustian behavior.

The poor slob at the bottom, the foot soldier, really just reflects the mindset of the top brass, right up to the WH. The troops at the bottom pay the price but the guys at the top MADE IT HAPPEN.

So we all should ask ourselves the question, have we learned nothing from the Holocaust. Ar e we just allowing the same type of people to once more push their debased values to set the agenda of our lives and the lives of so many others including the troops on the ground who will have to live, for the rest of their lives, with the first hand knowledge of what they did.

And amazingly enough my religion just keeps on supporting these people, these kinds of Rethug party thinkers. But then it also gave it's Imprimatur to Hitler, the Nazis and the Fascists. It all strikes me as just more of the same. Don't we all owe something to the six million dead and the sixty million dead from WWII to never again allow this kind of insanity, this abomination unto the 'family of man'.

A better question to ask? What hasn't been morally bankrupted by this corrupt Administration and it's stinking war of choice? Almost everything the man has touched has become corrupted by his extreme malevolence. At one time Christianity stood as a moral bulwark against the evils of the world. But it too has fallen prey to the evils that plagues this administration. I guess it's like the old saying goes 'a rotten apple eventually rots the whole barrel!'

1. We were wrong to invade

2. We are wrong to remain

3. Pelosi and Reid refuse to defund the occupation

4. Pelosi and Reid refuse to impeach

5. Pregnant women count as two kills

Yeah.. you lost me with the pomposity by page two. Really, "hors de combat"?!?... tautology?!?... nebulous?!? who actually uses these? I know chicks dig guys who use big words, but try "out of combat", logic, and vague... they will work quite nicely. Here a pair for the authors "sesquipedalian" and "ostentatious."

This is the Salon I remember. Thank you for telling this story.

Um, what about every person who voted for the politicians that you blame? What about the average people who democratically elected the President in 2004? What about every dollar from every taxpayer that went into the war? And this is not limited to Americans. Do you think you are innocent just because you don't like it now?

...that we have found the terrorists in Iraq, and they are us...

the main blame for all the killings is of course on the shoulders of GWB/Ramsfield n co, but as usual punishment starts on the bottom it may creep up a step or two but no further,

how many innocent people killed by us cops? how many beaten up how many inprisoned most for the sake of crime solved "rating" some am sure also for the cops entertainment n pleasure and almost always get away with their crimes why should anyone expect the us army to be any different? when they come from a culture like that?

america can pretend what a wonderful job their brave troops are doing in "liberating" iraq BUT reality is very diferent we all seen big powerful bomps dropping on a city full of people destroying whole streets of flats n house yet no ONE cared how many innocent men women n children where getting killed by each bomp or cruise missile

this incident is one of 1000s am sure, i seen few shocking ones on you Tube just look at gitmo abu whatever that jails name is

that would even shame the nazis let alone a country that preaches to others about democracy n human rights

and what will happen when all them veterans are in your streets? scary indeed