As noted above, the events at Haditha are the result of poor leadership...I think that a good military chain of command starts and ends with one important factor...trust.

When the soldiers on the ground trust their immediate supervisors, who in turn trust their commanders, all the way up to the CinC, then all of them are on the same page. When they are given orders that they don't know the reason behind, or the intelligence behind, that's OK...so long as they trust those giving the orders.

The bond of trust is severely broken in the prosecution of this war...the soldiers in Iraq are being lied to just as much as those of us at home are...the War on Terror, Saddam's links to Al Qaeda, and therefore to 9/11...they know what's up. They're fighting for the corporate interests that are the political bedfellows of the Bush Administration...and they're dying for those illicit relationships, too.

When the bond of trust is broken, and leadership fails, these are the results...and while our soldiers fighting in Iraq are going to need counseling and assistance when they get back, they know they're not going to get it...they see the cuts that Bush is making to VA benefits, soldier pay, forced re-enlistment (aka "stop loss")...they know they are just cogs in his war machine...especially when they see the massive tax cuts that are going straight to the Bush cronies.

Need more evidence of the poor leadership? Click on this link...this is what happens when our soldiers are lied to on a daily basis...

http://www.cair.com/video/marine-hadji-girl.wmv

Fish on...

Todd