War is the father of all conversational impasse

This week, NPR's morning edition is doing a 5-year-review of the war in Iraq - sober, thoughtful, involving interviews with guys who sound truly humane and heroic.

Then there is the enterprise as told by veterans of Iraq, which makes NPR seem parochial, and offers a war run like My Lai turned into systematic policy:

Something else we were actually encouraged to do, almost with a wink and a nudge, was to carry drop weapons or, by my third tour, drop shovels. What that basically is, is we would carry these weapons or shovels with us, because in case we accidentally did shoot a civilian, we could just toss the weapon on the body and make them look like they were an insurgent.

he watched the commander, who had given us the order to shoot anyone on the street, shoot two old ladies that were walking and carrying vegetables.

Winter Solder

Winter Solder 2

Winter Soldier reprise

The movie

[update:] Jeff Cohen finds a validation of new media in Winter Soldier. via