This pissGate is a just manufactured hate. Respect for the enemy depends on themselves earning respect, it's not a right, to suggest otherwise is to encourage these barbarians.
Such cowards as theses Taliban should be watered upon as should any who target civies, women and children.

'He is the last of eight Marines who have faced charges over the killings in Haditha. The other seven escaped conviction...'

In that case the use of the plural in the title is misleading and a defamation.

It is now a case of an alledged murderous marine and the others were found to be not guilty they didn't merely 'escape conviction'.

Sheesh another case of more simpleton propaganda against the US.

Unfortunately, this article barely raises the right questions let alone provides an answer to the question of moral culpability that it poses.
The Wuterich trial is merely an example of behaviour by American soldiers that is thoroughly documented in literally dozens of operations in the post war period. For a summary see William Blum Rogue State 3rd ed 2006. The behaviour of the soldiers merely reflects government policy. the illegal bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999; the Phoenix program of mass assassination in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s; the destruction of Falluja in 2003; The illegal invasion and occupation of Afghanistan in 2001; and many others well documented.
George Bush in his autobiography admitted torture of prisoners. that is not only a crime under internatiional law, it is also a crime under US domestic law. But waht did Obama say? He was looking "forward" not back and no-one least of all the politicians and generals who ordered the atrocities, would be held accountable. Thus, the principles of Nuremberg were dead and buried. Instead, there is a new ethic: we are a superpower and no-one will hold us accountable regardless of what we do.
That is the true moral bankruptcy and Australia is complicit because we unfailingly support the US (and Israel as shown in UN resolutions) regardless of what is done.
PS: before the neanderthals who regularly leap in and defend America against all charges on the grounds that either the others are worse or do the same, or we are just "leftist" anti-americans, let it be noted that the US claims to be different. If only the actions matched the rhetoric.

This article certainly sits on the fence when it comes to deciding whether the US should be condemned for its war crimes .
I think that the US's escalating war crimes are no more justified than those of Japan or Germany (which were prosecuted & punished in Nuremberg), AND no more justified than the anti-semitic war crimes of the state of Israel & supporters ,or the Palestinians & its supporters .

Is all this US torture (for God's sake) & recreational slaughter of innocents only the work of individual deviants ?
Alas , it comes from the top as official policy - the US ,a gratuitously violent culture to start with , has taken the opportunity of refusing to join international treaty granting jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court to charge , prosecute & punish (if convicted) US citizens for war crimes .
I wonder why .
Thus US army personnel enjoy virtual freedom from prosecution from war crimes , except from their own US courts which , as we have seen , pose very little danger to US war criminals .
Remember the comment of Hilliary Clinton when told of the summiary execution of Colnel Gaddafi ?
She is reported to have said -
"We came , we saw , he died ".
That sort of lout behavoir from the top is an example of the guidance that encourages US military personnel to take advantage of their license to commit extra curricular (illegal) murder .

What concerns me is that those undiciplined , brainwashed , swaggering , licenesed-to-kill , US "Defence" personnel have now been let loose in Australia .
I am very unhappy about that .

The deliberate murder of women and children is totally against the ethics of the western military code of honour. Soldiers who engage in such behaviour are held in contempt by their own military peers.

But such behaviour is cetainly not unknown in any army. Especially when highly stressed men who have been put in very lethal situations react angrily the to traumatic events, such as the gruesome death of much loved comrades. This is especially true in insurgent wars where the local population as a whole is the enemy, the indigent fighters do not wear uniforms which clearly identify themselves as enemy combatants, and they use the population for concealment.

In the last world war, incidents such as the one quoted were very common in the Jap and German Army, and there are many recorded historical incidents of this happening. The fact that such behaviour is extremely rare in the US Army and Marines, is a testament to the basic decency of US society as a whole, and a credit to the fundamental moral principles which guide the behaviour of individual soldiers.

Claiming that every US citizen bears some responsibility for what happened makes as much sense as claiming that every motorist is bears collective guilt for the behaviour of irresponsible drivers.

Hello Lego ,
You might be good at computers , but I'm not .
I sent a reply to your post to the generic OLO address , but it is not showing up here . Perhaps it will later .