LAUNCELOT: Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of the knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his own child. Well, old man, I will tell you news of your son: give me your blessing: truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man’s son may, but at the length truth will out.

— Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice
Act II, Scene 2

I was ordered to go in there and destroy the enemy. That was my job that day. That was the mission I was given. I did not sit down and think in terms of men, women and children. They were all classified as the same, and that’s the classification that we dealt with over there, just as the enemy. I felt then and I still do that I acted as I was directed, and I carried out the order that I was given and I do not feel wrong in doing so.

— 2nd Lt. William Calley
spoken during his murder trial
for his role in the My Lai Massacre

There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force.

— Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl
Spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad
13 July 2007, one day after the engagement

Well it’s their fault for bringing their kids into a battle.

— Unknown US soldier
regarding children who were wounded during an engagement on 12 July 2007

During this engagement, US Soldiers killed over a dozen civilians including two journalists for Reuters. The civilians were believed to be hostile forces armed with RPG launchers. Over the past two and a half years, Reuters’ requests for the footage of the incident under the Freedom of Information Act had not been granted by US Military, who said as recently as last week that they were still processing the request.

On 5 April 2010, WikiLeaks released the footage obtained by military whistleblowers. It’s as horrifying as you’d expect.

This is the inevitable consequence of war. To those of you who advocated for it in 2002 and continue to do so today, I have to ask: how do you sleep at night?