Ishaqi: Burden Of Proof Still On USA

For starters, what Chris Floyd said:

You dissent because so many lies have been forced down your throat, and you just want to know the truth, as far as it can be known, you just want to speak the truth, whatever it may be. You dissent because of the reality that you see. And this is a painful thing... It isn't fun; there's no pleasure in it.

Floyd takes a good look at the Pentagon's denial of the Ishaqi massacre, which appears to be a case of straight-out, bald-faced lying, and facts be damned.

It's only prudent to reserve judgment on any institution that investigates itself for wrongdoing. Or put it this way: if you're ever charged with murder or bank fraud or dope dealing or tax dodging, ask the cops if you can investigate yourself, and see what they say.

But the Ishaqi exoneration warrants skepticism not only in this general sense, but also in its particulars. From press accounts of the report, it largely reiterates the Pentagon's original storyline, while enlarging the death count from the original "four civilians, including one child," which it had held to until this week, when the Haditha story spilled out. And the report apparently just dismisses out of hand the large amount of credible evidence that contradicts the Pentagon's latest story.

As Floyd points out, both the photographic evidence from the scene and the eyewitness testimony from every single one of the locals contradict the Pentagon story.

Someone fired a single shot into the bodies of every child on display in the photographs, which were taken by a Western news agency, and corroborated by a representative of another Western news agency, Associated Press, who was also on the scene after the attack.