Massacre

My Lai changed the American public perception of the Vietnam War. Today, we're so numb with an outrage that has internalized, settled in, propped its legs up on the ottoman, that this story seems to have dropped off the face of American newspaper front pages and even the lefty blogosphere. In the US outrage is in "Gilligan!" mode. The investigation is ongoing, but don't expect charges. The Independent reminds us....

US military investigators are examining allegations that Marines shot unarmed Iraqis, then claimed they were "enemy fighters", The Independent on Sunday has learned. In the same incident, eyewitnesses say, one man bled to death over a period of hours as soldiers ignored his pleas for help.

American military officials in Iraq have already admitted that 15 civilians who died in the incident in the western town of Haditha last November were killed by Marines, and not by a roadside bomb, as had previously been claimed. The only victim of the remotely triggered bomb, it is now conceded, was a 20-year-old Marine, Lance-Corporal Miguel Terrazas, from El Paso, Texas.