It is now becoming apparent that the wanton act had the approval of the seniors. The US Marines first shot dead five unarmed persons including four students who tried to run away from a patrol party which had stopped their taxi-cab. Then an explosion ripped through a military patrol vehicle, killing its US driver.

Suspecting involvement of the people in the neighbourhood, the Marines went about forcibly smashing into nearby homes and killing their occupants. In one of the houses eight unarmed civilians including six women were shot dead. The massacre, which came to light in March this year following disclosures made in a report published by a leading US magazine, claimed the lives of 24 innocent Iraqis who were killed by the Marines in cold blood. It could be the worst known case of abuse by the US soldiers since the 2003 invasion and comes at a time when public opinion polls show falling US public support for the war.

In Haditha, the number of the people massacred by the Marines on the morning of November 19 was not quite on the My Lai scale, but the methodology and madness revealed chilling similarity. It is eerily reminiscent of the My Lai carnage of Vietnam in 1968 when the soldiers of Charlie Company commanded by Lieutenant William Calley moved into that Vietnamese village.

Men, women and children including babies were killed in the carnage that followed. Playing children were shot in the back of the head, elderly men were hacked to death with bayonets. The people were shot in their knees and in the back with hands in the air. More than 500 people were killed just in hours. Some of the corpses were mutilated. Some women who were not killed were gang-raped. Other villagers were beaten and tortured.

The man commanding Charlie Company was sentenced to life imprisonment through a court martial. He was however pardoned by great human rights champion, Richard Nixon. We are yet to see how the wheels of justice roll in the Haditha tragedy -- particularly when the US-led occupation forces are desperately trying to salvage their moral authority from the debris of the Abu-Gharib prison scandal involving American soldiers.

The Haditha massacre details are hugely damning -- more so when the Bush administration cannot convince the public at home why it continues to hang on in Iraq in the face of mounting resistance to the presence of US troops who suffer more and more casualties.

Both in My Lai and Haditha, double crimes were committed: first the massacre, then a cover-up. My Lai was unraveled only much later through journalistic persistence including a piece by Seymour Hersh. In Haditha we see much the same pattern. The massacre took place last November. It took the mainstream US media four months to uncover the story and another six months for the military to confirm.

In Iraqi news networks, though, there are scores of stories of unarmed civilians killed by US-led coalition forces backed by video footage, but few make it into the western media. In this context, Haditha is made to seem exceptional but with its gravity diminished by the obligatory and nauseating ministerial comment that things were worse under Saddam. What an excuse for perpetrating US atrocities in collaboration with the pro-occupation Iraqi dispensation now in place!

Notwithstanding My Lai and the like, the Americans eventually pulled out of Vietnam, but not before Nixon and Kissinger, in a bid to save American face, tried to break North Vietnamese will by unleashing a savage bombing campaign on Hanoi and Haiphong. Will was not broken, but much unnecessary carnage was caused.

How long before the Americans call it a day and pull out of Iraq. How much more carnage must we see before the US can say it has saved face in Iraq? How many more Hadithas, Saamaras, and Fallujahs? Those who can not remember the past -- its failures and ignominy -- are indeed condemned to repeat it.

The American military in Iraq is not only stretched out, it's also under physical and psychological stress, which has apparently reached its elastic limit. The inability of the US forces to hold ground in much of Iraq, and the cat and mouse chase that has since ensued, have compelled most Marines and soldiers to live in self-imposed isolation -- behind massive concrete barriers, bales of concertina wire, and perimeters guarded by sniper towers and tanks. These are anything but the signs of impending collapse of the insurgency!

Brig ( retd) Hafiz is former DG of BIISS.