“Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lashed out at the American military on Thursday, denouncing what he characterized as habitual attacks by troops against Iraqi civilians.” (New York Times ) The tip of the iceberg turned out to be just the tip of the tip. First we had isolated torture of enemy combatants by rogue underlings, then it was a persistent pattern of torture of detainees around the globe, then an isolated massacre of civilians by rogue troops, finally a habitual pattern of gratuitous violence. Little else should have been expected given the xenophobic contemptuous arrogant imperialist culture of the American projection of force in dealing with Iraq and the Mideast. It is shaped by and emanates from the top. My country, ’tis of thy people, you’re dying.

Addendum: Robert Fisk echoes my theme: “Could Haditha be just the tip of the mass grave?… [P]art of the problem is that we never really cared about Iraqis.”

And retired Army General John Batiste, on CNN, insists that Haditha, Abu Ghraib etc. arise from Rumsfeld’s bad judgment in managing the war effort in 2003-04. A Pulitzer Prize winning former Toledo Blade reporter and co-author of Tiger Force, discussing parallels between Haditha and My Lai, tells Der Spiegel that “I hope the investigation goes up the food chain.” An increasing number of politicians are clamoring for the investigation of the massacre to go all the way to the top.