Oh, the ironies of war

Saddam Hussein is currently on trial in Iraq, charged with murdering dozens of residents of al-Dujail because someone in the village had tried to assassinate him.

As the trial proceeds, it appears some of Iraq's liberators may be capable of reprisals of their own. Last November, a U.S. Marine report indicated a roadside bomb near the town of Haditha had killed a marine and 15 Iraqi civilians. Further investigation, however, revealed the civilians, including seven women and three children, had been shot. The marines, it appeared, had gone on a rampage. A nine-year old survivor, Eman Waleed, said, "I couldn't see their faces very well, only their guns sticking into the doorway. I watched them shoot my grandfather first in the chest and then in the head. Then they killed my granny."

Last week, Iraqi police accused U.S. soldiers of murdering civilians in the village of Abu Sifa. The police report read, in part, "The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people, including five children, four women and two men, then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed their animals."

There is an expression, I believe, "If you hate your enemy long enough, you become your enemy."