Also on the subject of internal discplining of those responsible. The reporter who covered the initial incident at the time said this in an interview post the realease of the cables Q) So this incident has really never been addressed by the U.S. military in a comprehensive way? A) It has not. The military has always been dismissive of this case. It may well be that it should be dismissed. But there's enough smoke there that it deserves a very thorough investigation. These are very disturbing allegations. The Iraqi cops who investigated this had U.S. training; they were not anti-American. They had respect for the training they had gotten. There has been and continues to be a desire for concrete answers.
Do you really want me to post a list of atrocities committed by the SS? I think we both know that would be futile because as I said there is simply no comparison to be made. As for Ethan McCord, was he serving with every US unit or could his accuation be just another sweeping generalisation? If the war crimes he alleges happen on "an almost daily basis" then there should be lot more evidence both documentary and anecdotal, i'll be honest and say i've not seen much. Perhaps there were (or are) a lot more incidents than have been reported? If they do come into the public domain I would like to see people punished for their actions but I sincerely doubt things are as bad as have been painted by McCord otherwise we would have heard a lot more by now, especially seeing as how wikileaks are on their case.
Again im not actually making a direct comparison between the SS and the US Army. But im sure there is more than a hint of truth to what he says, and atrocity can mean many things. m not sayin they go and murdeer whole families on a daily basis but pulling one person off the street and killing him is not going to make headline news amongst the carnage but is an atrocity nonetheless. And wikileaks is on nobodies case. They are only as informative as the information given to them, they are not investigative journalists with an agenda. They provide a medium for release of information that people privvy to may feel the world have a right to know but minus the dire consequences of public knowing it was you who leaked it.
It seems you have already concluded that they're guilty. Unless you know all the facts (which none of us here do), then you might be in a postion to cast judgement.
