Haditha

Its pretty much incontrovertible now. Statements from survivors, statements from soldiers who were present, video footage of children dead in their nightclothes from gunshot wounds. Even conservative commentators are starting to admit that it was murder.
Still being described as an isolated incident wherever possible, despite the fact that independent reporters in Iraq have been detailing similar cases pretty much since "mission accomplished". And despite the fact that the US military attempted to cover up the Haditha massacre. It was written in the military report just after the incident that 15 civilians had been killed by the roadside bomb and 8 "insurgents" killed by marines in a gunfight that followed. Its obvious now that this report was pure fiction, which begs the question: how many more so called "insurgents" have in fact been unarmed civilians? If the military tried to cover this up, what else has it been hiding?
The soldiers involved in this particular atrocity will be charged with either murder or manslaughter and the US military is currently investigating itself to see if it has been covering things up. So we can all rest easy. The idea of command responsibility, used to great effect at Nuremburg, has obviously gone right out the window. There is some optimistic talk that Bush and his men may be open to prosecution because of incidents like this, but seeing as he hasn't been held accountable by anyone for the supreme international crime of starting a war that was not in self-defence or sanctioned by the security council, I doubt anyone should get their hopes up. Just chalk up Iraq as yet another atrocity the UN failed to stand against.