Is this the Iraqi version of My Lai

Khalaf, a 33-year-old security officer guarding oil pipelines, saw a US helicopter land near his home. American soldiers stormed out of the Chinook and advanced on a house owned by Khalaf’s brother Fayez, firing as they went.

Khalaf ran from his own house and hid in a nearby grove of trees. He saw the soldiers enter his brother’s home and then heard the sound of women and children screaming.

“Then there was a lot of machinegun fire,” he said last week. After that there was the most frightening sound of all — silence, followed by explosions as the soldiers left the house.

Once the troops were gone, Khalaf and his fellow villagers began a frantic search through the ruins of his brother’s home. Abu Sifa was about to join a lengthening list of Iraqi communities claiming to have suffered from American atrocities.

According to Iraqi police, 11 bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the house, among them four women and five children aged between six months and five years. An official police report obtained by a US reporter for Knight Ridder newspapers said: “The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people.”

If you are too young to remember My Lai, or they haven't yet covered it in your history class, then you need to go here. The fact is that the My Lai massacre energized the Vietnam anti-war movement and made it almost impossible for the American public to accept that what we were doing in Vietnam was for the benefit of the Vietnamese.

It is possible that Abu Sifa will serve as the same flashpoint in this conflict. There have been many other episodes that might also have served the same function. Such as this one, or this one, or even this one. Any of these examples of American soldiers killing or brutalizing Iraqis could have served to make Americans cringe in disgust at what is being done in their names to the citizens of Iraq. But the majority of us don't hear this news.

The terrible fact is that war is a horrible business carried out by individuals who find their humanity slipping away the longer they stay in that environment. You or I cannot fathom the type of hate that makes Americans treat people in this manner. I would postulate however that if we were placed in the same type of environment we might find ourelves, at the very least, excusing some of these behaviors ourselves if not actively joining in.

The indictment by the Bush administration that the media is not looking for the good news is a blatant attempt to hide from us what is really happening. I say that if we knew even a fraction of just how terrible things are over there for the Iraqi's and our own troops we would rise as one and demand that they return immediately. We would be far less concerned with the potential war that might break out amongst the Iraqis after our departure then the terrible things that are happening today on our watch. At least the humanity of our fighting force might be preserved.

(By the way though Americans might not be completely aware of just how bad the abuses have been, the Iraqis are not so insulated. They are privy to every terrible transgression committed on the Iraqi women prisoners and the murder of their people by American forces. That is why we really have no choice but to leave if there is every going to be any hope of a peaceful Iraq. And the idea that they are going to work with the USA after what we have done to them is laughable.)