> How about "regardless of whether they were in My Lai,"
> etc.?
I'd like to revisit this question with a few thoughts that have crystallized over the last two days.
B., you essentially propose that we treat events like My Lai as individual crimes, rather than institutional ones.
I see two problems with this:
1. It makes no sense.
2. It benefits nobody but the institutions.
The world may not be the least bit better for all the public uproar over My Lai, and later Abu Ghraib.
That's because the institutions ultimately responsible for them skillfully redirected public discourse onto the same "bad apple" track you propose here.
I've avoided combat up until now, but imagine that in hellish enough environments, there are no "good apples."
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."