American exceptionalism: The freedom our government reserves for itself to take exception to any attempts by aggrieved parties to render it accountable for illegal acts:
Troops, traumatized by the rising violence and feeling constantly under siege, grew increasingly twitchy, killing more and more civilians in accidental encounters. Others became so desensitized and inured to the killing that they fired on Iraqi civilians deliberately while their fellow soldiers snapped pictures, and were court-martialed. The bodies piled up at a time when the war had gone horribly wrong.Charges were dropped against six of the accused Marines in the Haditha episode, one was acquitted and the last remaining case against one Marine is scheduled to go to trial next year.
That sense of American impunity ultimately poisoned any chance for American forces to remain in Iraq, because the Iraqis would not let them stay without being subject to Iraqi laws and courts, a condition the White House could not accept.
Told about the documents that had been found, Col. Barry Johnson, a spokesman for the United States military in Iraq, said that many of the documents remain classified and should have been destroyed. “Despite the way in which they were improperly discarded and came into your possession, we are not at liberty to discuss classified information,” he said.
He added: “We take any breech of classified information as an extremely serious matter. In this case, the documents are being reviewed to determine whether an investigation is warranted.”
Unauthorized leaks: Extremely serious matter. Dead civilians: Not so much.
If we're to forgo war crimes prosecutions, we still need at very least a Truth & Reconciliation Commission to probe and expose the serial criminality of the US government in virtually all policy spheres circa 2001-2009. Otherwise, this shit is simply going to happen again. And when it does, the current occupant of the White House will bear a great share of responsibility for it, even if none of the atrocities actually happened on his watch. There are some forms of behavior---like mass slaughter and torture---that are so repugnant, a civil society can never give them a pass without betraying the moral argument for its existence as a nation. Put another way: absent a sea change in the selective way we choose to observe accepted norms of international law, we are hence and forevermore a rogue state, now cloaked in the mantle of bipartisanship. I'm sure glad I voted for this three years ago.
Also too, free-market solutions.
---Vitelius
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