What have we seen?

Lately we've been finding that Iraq is as much reaping the whirlwind as anything else.

Item One: The Nation reports from several returning veterans that the nature of their orders and the day-to-day situation for American troops is so bad that all manner of reprehensible acts are undertaken by American troops from petty embarrassments to Iraqi's to physical abuse and killing.

Item Two: The Marine investigator recommends dismissal against a marine charged in the killings of two dozen or so civilians in Haditha. The troops were following their orders of engagement he finds -- though at present the matter is still scheduled for trial starting today.

Item Three: The latest testimony in the murder trial of Cpl. Trent D. Thomas, charged with killing an injured and defenseless Iraqi.

A corporal testifying in a court-martial said Marines in his unit began routinely beating Iraqis after officers ordered them to "crank up the violence level."...

"We were told to crank up the violence level," said Lopezromo, testifying for the defense.

When a juror asked for further explanation, Lopezromo said: "We beat people, sir."

Within weeks of allegedly being scolded, seven Marines and a Navy corpsman went out late one night to find and kill a suspected insurgent in the village of Hamdaniya near the Abu Ghraib prison. The Marines and corpsman were from 2nd Platoon, Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Regiment.

Lopezromo said the suspected insurgent was known to his neighbors as the "prince of jihad," and had been arrested several times and later released by the Iraqi legal system.

Unable to find him, the Marines and corpsman dragged another man from his house, fatally shot him, and then planted an AK-47 assault rifle near the body to make it appear he had been killed in a shootout, according to court testimony.

There has never been a "battle for hearts and minds" that's been won through indiscriminate brutality in response to the same -- and as a result of unclear orders of an army ill-trained and ill-equipped for the occupation they were sentenced to perform. And implicit brutality appears to have how the orders came down. This war, of course, has morphed into more ill-found basis than any war in our history. And here it is again.