It is gratifying to see that the foreign editor of The New York Times, whose international
reporting we long admired, agrees with us.
May 3: “The mission [in Iraq] is not only not accomplished. It has, with the latest
revelations turned into a moral defeat so shattering that the political and military nightmare (still
brewing, with worse to come) may one day seem to have been pre-ordained.” — “Bad to
Worse,” Straight Up
May 6: “This is not My Lai. This is not the war in Vietnam. This is different. But the
lessons are the same. Will they ever be learned?” — “Donkey Tale,” Straight
Up
May 9: “A military defeat is a damaging thing, and Iraq remains a tense
battleground. But a moral one may be more devastating and more enduring for a power like the
United States that has long held that its actions are driven, at least in part, by the desire to be a
force for good with a liberating mission for all humanity. …
“Abu Ghraib is not My Lai. Nothing like the infamous massacre of Vietnamese civilians took
place in the Iraqi prison. But it is assuming something of the mantle of that tragedy — a vivid stain
on America’s conscience. How the United States can recover the moral authority with which
much of the world still yearns to vest it will depend on its choices over the next few weeks. The
battle for Iraq now begins again, for the third time, and on tougher terms than ever.” — Roger
Cohen, “They’ve Apologized. Now
What?” Week in Review
More essential reading: This week’s latest from Seymour Hersh in
The New Yorker, “Chain of
Command,” and last week’s latest from Cynthia Ozick in The
New York Observer, “The Modern ‘Hep! Hep!
Hep!'”
