[sinkspur]

I said it when I first heard about the Marine briefing that someone is trying to soften the blow and I still feel that way.

From the report in the Washington Post story this morning, the details of this incident are going to be just about as bad as they can be.

There are eyewitnesses, and Iraqi fathers begging for the lives of their children before they are shot.

Everybody on FR for the last week has been discounting press reports and saying that there was crossfire.

From the eyewitnesses, there was no crossfire. There was an out-of-control commander who methodically led 11 other men into three houses, killing every single person in those houses, save one 13 year old girl, who fainted and was thought to be dead because she had her sister's blood on her face.

This is not going to be good.

[leadpenny]

That's like a punch in the gut.

When I saw the movie "Platoon" I saw it as a metaphor for My Lai. In the theater were some young soldiers or marines in civilian clothes. They could have been from Ft. Belvoir or Quantico. When I heard laughter at the most inappropriate times, I knew the lessons of My Lai were not being kept alive in the military.

[epow]

From the eyewitnesses, there was no crossfire.

Yeah, and who are the eyewitnesses? Iraqis that's who. They could all be insurgents pretending to be innocent civilians and who would know the difference?

This may turn out to be a real massacre, but they're gonna have to prove it with something more than Iraqi "eyewitnesses" before I believe it.