I wonder how will this play out. I think it will go something like this:
1. Soldiers are accused of murder.
2. Spin-meisters will make it look like these few are responsible for all the atrocities everywhere in Iraq.
3. Spin-meisters will continue just until boredom in the viewing audience begins to set in. IOWs, the spin fling reaches a saturation point.
4. Soldiers will be acquitted because of the extenuating circumstances of war.
5. This implies that all atrocities should be forgiven in the same way.
There is one small bump I see that I imagine will be smoothed nicely away: When the approaching soldiers were asking about the conditions inside the mosque from the soldiers already there, the first question asked was if the Iraqis inside had been shot. The second question asked about weapons the Iraqis might have had on them. BTW, the first question was answered with words, the second with a shrug (Like, “I don’t know” or “Who cares”).
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems pretty clear that the inquiring soldiers were more concerned with whether the Iraqis were dead than whether they were armed. Could you say this is evidence of intent?
We need some time since the last atrocity to put barbarism behind us. We really do.