Reply #60: It really makes you wonder whether they knew he had been involved

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

in an atrocity like this, but rather than get to the bottom of it, the response was to hustle him out of the service to try and wash the Army's hands of it.

I guess this crime was like the "Tell Tale Heart". Can you imagine the fear of the men who had been involved in this, occupying a town where they are hugely outnumbered and where they suspect the townspeople may know they were responsible for the deed.

I suppose most of the perpetrators are probably beyond feelings of guilt, or they probably never would have done so monstrous a thing, so fear might be the only thing they know.

The discovery of their dead, mutilated comrades probably turned their fear into white hot terror.

The sad thing is, the soldiers who were maimed and killed probably didn't have anything to do with it. They were just bearing the punishment for the men from their unit, and were the only ones the vengeance crazed Iraqis could get their hands on.