The PROBLEM is not that there are atrocities during war time, this is a given. The problem is how this Administration has failed to deal with them.
Why did it take 6 months to conduct an investigation?
THAT one question sums up the problem. Why was it necessary for external pressure to force this Administration to investigate? If this had all been handled internally, quickly, fairly and efficiently, then this would have been bad, but over in a day.
Instead there is now questions of a cover-up. Questions of if this is an isolated situation. Questions now about the honor of our troops. Questions of 'are thing better or worst' for Iraqis since the invasion? Questions about whether this is just the tip of the iceberg, and that the 'black' prisons, ignoring the Geneva Conventions and Abu Gharib are symptoms of a greater rampant disease of human rights violations. Questions about the validity of the mission, period.
This Administration has also handled the reaction to this wrong. It has sent it's attack dogs out with standing orders of turn any criticism of the Administration into a claim of attack against the troops, an un-patriotic and gleeful attack of Bush as the body count climbs. Bush is trying to sell the lie, that his opponents are cheering the death of Americans and hoping for the war in Iraq to fail.
The reality is that the war in Iraq was ill conceived and not thought out beyond the initial engagement. The Reality is that Bush has caused a greater instability in the Middle East than Saddam or Al qaida alone could have done. The Reality is that Iraq is a failure that can not be allowed to happen. The reality is it is Bush himself who is in the way of ending this FUBAR with any hope for success.
Iraq is an example of the failures of the Bush Administration. To examine and understand the failures of the Iraq war is to understand why Bush is quickly being known as the worst President in American history!