vietnam & iraq

in an effort to stay up on current events, here ya go...

In 1968, during the Vietnam War, Lt. William Calley ordered the massacre of the entire village of My Lai (innocent men, women, and children) though no Vietcong were present. He blamed his actions on orders from higher-ups in the military, but with no substantial evidence, only Calley was convicted. A journalist named Seymour Hersh brought the scandal to public attention in an article he would write a year later.

Why is this relevant? Seymour Hersh is also the journalist who recently penned the now controversial New Yorker article on the abuse scandals of the Abu Ghraib U.S. military prison in Iraq. It seems to be an eerily similar situtaion in which Staff Sergeant Ivan L. Frederick II blames his behavior on the orders of military intelligence (much like Calley who blamed his higher-ups). I wouldn't be surprised if this is as big as Hersh writes. We'll see...