That could be part of it, brit. There slso seemed to have been a strong reaction pretty early on from the Marine leadership. This incident was revealed about the time COIN was being pushed as the way forward in Iraq (I think). Here's how WaPo describes Lt. Gen. Chiarelli's reaction to the incident.
In Haditha Killings, Details Came Slowly
.........."That same month, a top military official arrived in Iraq who would play a key role in the case: Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the new No. 2 military officer in the country. He is an unusual general in today's Army, with none of the "good old boy" persona seen in many other top commanders. He had praised an article by a British officer that was sharply critical of U.S. officers in Iraq for using tactics that alienated the population. He wanted U.S. forces to operate differently than they had been doing.
Not long after Chiarelli arrived in Baghdad, an Iraqi journalism student gave an Iraqi human rights group a video he had taken in Haditha the day after the incident. It showed the scene at the local morgue and the damage in the houses where the killings took place. The video reached Time magazine, whose reporters began questioning U.S. military officials. Pool, the Marine captain, sent the reporters a dismissive e-mail saying that they were falling for al-Qaeda propaganda, the magazine said recently. "I cannot believe you're buying any of this," he wrote. Pool declined last week to comment on any aspect of the Haditha incident.
But Army Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a more senior spokesman in Baghdad, notified Chiarelli of the questions. The general's response to his public affairs office was short: Just brief the Time magazine reporter on the military investigation into the incident that Chiarelli assumed had been conducted.
The surprising word came back: There had been no investigation.
Chiarelli told subordinates in early February he was amazed by that response, according to an Army officer in Iraq. He directed that an inquiry commence as soon as possible. He wanted to know what had happened in Haditha, and also why no investigation had begun."............
I think there were many factors why this thing took off, and not just because of the number of deaths.
I think there were many factors why this thing took off, and not just because of the number of deaths. Exactly so Girlene. The transition from the stick to the carrot had to have been completely disjointed. Where one outfit was employing the stick, another was giving out the carrot. And as the carrot became more prevalent, incidents involving the stick were easier to scrutinize.
IMO, Haditha would never have been investigated or scrutinized if the prevailing methodology was all stick.