Who did they kill when they informed the American public of The Truth?

The argument can be very easily made that when a soldier breaks within his capacity of service, it is not he or she that owns the responsibility, but, the country that sent them.

When their intention is only to serve and war changes their resolve, it is the country responsible for their change of heart. For if a war is heinous and the deaths of fellow soldiers egregious it is the duty of those that serve to bring the truth to the people they were sent to defend.

May 12, 2005
A top US commander at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq - where detainees were abused by American guards - has been reprimanded and fined $8,000 (£4,274). (click here)
 
The US army found Col Thomas Pappas guilty of two counts of dereliction of duty, including that of allowing dogs to be present during interrogations.
Col Pappas was in charge of military intelligence personnel at the prison near the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. 

Last week, former commander of the jail Brig Gen Janis Karpinski was demoted. 

Nine junior US soldiers have been charged in connection with the abuse at the prison in late 2003, and seven of them have already been convicted.

Calley

...After thirteen days of deliberations, (click here) the longest in U. S. court-martial history, the jury returned its verdict: guilty of premeditated murder on all specifications.  After hearing pleas on the issue of punishment, jury head Colonel Clifford Ford  pronounced Calley's sentence: "To be confined at hard labor for the length of your natural life; to be dismissed from the service; to forfeit all pay and allowances." 


IV.
Opinion polls showed that the public overwhelmingly disapproved of the verdict in the Calley case [OPINION POLLS].  President Nixon ordered Calley removed from the stockade (after spending a single weekend there) and placed under house arrest.  He announced that he would review the whole decision.  Nixon's action prompted Aubrey Daniel to write a long and angry letter in which he told the President that "the greatest tragedy of all will be if political expediency dictates the compromise of such a fundamental moral principle as the inherent unlawfulness of the murder of innocent persons"[AUBREY LETTER].  On November 9, 1974, the Secretary of the Army announced that William Calley would be paroled.  In 1976, Calley married.  In August 2009, while speaking at a Kiwanis meeting in his hometown of Columbus, Georgia, 66-year-old Calley offered a public apology for his role at My Lai:  "Not a day goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day at My Lai.  I am very sorry." 


My Lai mattered.  Two weeks after the Calley verdict was announced, the Harris Poll reported for the first time that a majority of Americans opposed the war in Viet Nam.  The My Lai episode caused the military to re-evaluate its training with respect to the handling of noncombatants.  Commanders sent troops in the Desert Storm operation into battle with the words, "No My Lais-- you hear?"

Military Cleared in Raid on Iraq House (click here) 

By Josh White Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 3, 2006

...The military scrambled to announce the investigation's findings amid rising international furor about another alleged mass slaying, in Haditha, on Nov. 19. Several U.S. Marines are under investigation into whether they shot as many as two dozen civilians in their homes and in a taxi.
The alleged slayings have increased tensions between U.S. forces and the Iraqis amid claims that the military has used excessive force while fighting insurgents. Military commanders acknowledged yesterday that frustrations and stresses related to battling the insurgency may be causing a small number of U.S. troops to fail to follow proper procedures.
Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, spokesman for Multi-National Force-Iraq, issued a statement last night saying that investigators had found no wrongdoing in the Ishaqi raid and that the ground force commander "properly followed the rules of engagement as he necessarily escalated the use of force until the threat was eliminated." Caldwell said troops captured a Kuwaiti-born al-Qaeda cell leader -- Ahmad Abdallah Muhammad Na'is al-Utaybi -- and killed an Iraqi bombmaker and recruiter during the coordinated raid...