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.
Makes sense to me. Carrots/sticks. Haditha was not at the point of carrots from all the reporting coming out of that area at the time. How many Marines were killed in August, 2005 before Kilo company came in? I don’t think the investigative report on the 20 something deaths within two days in that month was ever released (primarily from Lima company out of Ohio).
It was not a friendly area at the time.