If I remember correctly, there were more Marines active in Haditha, that day, than just this one convoy that was hit with an IED. So does the prisoner, cash info refer to the whole area, not just this one portion of a neighborhood that was engaged? Either way, Haditha was a hotbed of terrorists, that's why their was an operation underway to clean up the area.
Your reference to My Lai - Last time I checked Google, there were 160,000 hits connecting My Lai to Haditha. I'm sure plenty of these hits were for articles saying they weren't comparable. But what a shame to even have them compared.
It seems like a simple case of a. where they following ROE's for the situation at the time, and b. was their an intentional coverup? The rest is politics.
I wondered the same thing, Girl. We'll have to get more details from verbosevet when he signs in.