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From the Washington Post:
[Haditha] suggests that top U.S. commanders have been unsuccessful in urging subordinate leaders to focus less on killing insurgents and more on winning the support of the Iraqi people, especially by providing them security.
I was reminded of an anecdote recounted by Iraq War veteran Ilario Pantano earlier this week. He described how two soldiers he knew had been blown up while travelling in one of their vehicles. He said that while he had no official responsibility for these soldiers, he felt he could have made enough noise to change the official policy that endangered them. The soldiers had been traveling in a convoy of vehicles that included Iraqi police vehicles. The manner of the attack required a lot of real-time intelligence. Pantano said:
The Iraqi police were compromised, but it was our mission to train and to trust them.
Because the official mission was "to train and to trust" -- regardless of the facts on the ground -- two U.S. soldiers were attacked; one was killed, and the other one lost limbs. And this is just one example.
The soldiers on trial for actions at Haditha, are innocent until proven guilty.
