I regret using your excellent post to make some points that seem to have been missed. And missed by all commentators that I have found on the account of Haditha that heads this thread.
This war is different. This defense lawyer statement is different.
The truth is usually more difficult to find than just giving an opinion on the evidence available.
But, in this case, I believe that we have been given the answers on a silver platter.
I can think of no reason for the defendant via his lawyer to lie about any of the details in a rather complete account of the episode.
All these details have been and are being investigated. Congress and the media are watching. Any lie will have serious repercussions.
Contrary accounts are from enemy sources via an agenda driven media.
{{___ I think that this is a very difficult situation that goes along with war.}}
"Truth is the first casualty of war." But there are sufficient radical differences between the current war on terror and all prior wars that old theories and prejudices need to be discarded.
Our universities and university educated are of little help. As Adam Smith said of the great English universities of his day: "They are the last refuge of exploded theories and obsolete prejudices that have been hunted out of every other corner of the world."
Please note the following:
. Our military is the best by far that the world has ever seen. In equipment, training, education, and professionalism they excel. But above all there is a legacy of Christian culture and tradition: a substantial residue of individual civic virtue: courage, justice, moderation, and prudence.
. Our enemies are barbarians and the enablers of barbarians.
. Our educators and those educated solely by them have, in general, lost their collective minds. By elevating multi-cultural diversity, they have lost all moral authority, for themselves, for their nation, for the world.
{{___ I think that massacres do occur, and innocents are intentionally targeted by some,}}
But attention should be paid to the greater things of the law. Not to tithing of mint and cumin. To beams, not motes.
There are those who wish to kill us and destroy our culture. Massacres and targeting innocents are their normal method of operation.
There may be comfort in Monday morning quarterbacking the minutiae of military discipline -
But it is perhaps better to resolve to support the cause that they have so far so nobly advanced.
{{___ and that the government should investigate those who have high civilian casualties. I also believe that those who do not like the U.S. }}
Marvelous euphemism: "those who do not like the U.S."
Our foreign enemies hate us, and would do away with us.
Our domestic adversaries hate our Christian traditions, and would do away with them.
{{___ will exagerate and twist what really happend. As well, at times, politicians will sacrafice good soldiers in a mock trial just to keep the peace. }}
Take note of the lynch mob in the present case.
{{___ It is ugly from all sides, difficult to manage, investigate, and find the truth of what happened. }}
But as I said in the first post and at the top of this post: there is absolutely no reason to doubt the public statement of the staff sergeant in any factual detail.
