Burying brutal truths about war

Salon's Eric Boehlert reports on the Toledo Blade's four-part series, "Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths," which details "how, in 1967, an elite Army paratrooper unit named Tiger Force went on a seven-month killing spree in South Vietnam, targeting unarmed farmers, women and children. The paper also uncovered for the first time that a secret four-year Army investigation had concluded that 18 members of Tiger Force had committed war crimes, but no charges were ever brought. Instead, the investigation was simply filed away in 1975, during Donald Rumsfeld's first run as secretary of defense."

Boehlert notes that the series is likely to be a Pulitzer Prize finalist next year and is getting widespread coverage in the foreign press. In the United States, however, it's being ignored.

Considering that the "parallels with Vietnam are asserting themselves again and again in Iraq," it's likely prudent to consider the lessons and experiences of that disastrous conflagration from 30+ years ago, lest we commit the same errors and atrocities.