Haditha Marines judged guilty by NYT Book Review

The front page of the Sunday New York Times Book Review has a review of Black Hearts, which begins with the following statement:

Of all the crimes that sullied the record of the United States military in Iraq — the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib, the killings of 24 Iraqi men, women and children by Marines in November 2005 in Haditha…

The Marines accused of murder in Haditha were in fact all cleared of charges. I can’t say for sure that nothing untoward happened in Haditha, but it’s clear that exoneration in a military court will not exonerate the Marines in the historical record as reported by the mainstream media. From now on, Abu Ghraib and Haditha will be code words for American evil perpetrated on innocent third world civilians.