Iraq Mai Lai

[Pangloss62]

I didn't read the NYT today, but I don't think they discussed the psychology of the Marines in question in the article I quoted, nor did they invoke a Mai Lai analogy. I said "...that someone by now is calling what happened in Haditha an 'Iraq Mai Lai.'" A quick search will indeed indicate that fact, with various articles referring to the Haditha incident as "..being described as Iraq's "new Mai Lai." Not surprisingly AlJazeera invoked the Mai Lai analogy right away. Other editorialists are writing things like:

"Since the start of the terror wars, what we have been witnessing are a series of mini Mai Lais, thuggish statesmanship and the makings of prison states. Rarely has the sun sunk so low in the lands of the formerly free."

Liberals? Certainly. Inappropriate analogy? I guess that depends on who you talk/listen to. A Vietnam vet/colleague of mine saw the parallel, but he was not at Mai Lai. Whatever analogy, what happened was good for nobody.