One thing, really: The people at the bottom of the command food chain are the ones who were charged.
Not the higher-ups. Blackwater was not charged. Blackwater is a company who was so arrogant that they got four of their guards massacred in Fallujah and then earned a well-deserved reputation for being a clan of steroid-abusing hopped up trigger happy goons who killed people for fun, culminating in the Nisour Square Massacre.
Only their guards face charges.
Similarly in the Abu Ghraib fiasco, only one NCO above the rang of buck sergeant was punished (one staff sergeant). Four officers were reprimanded. One general was demoted, though most reporters overlooked the inconvenient facts that the general in question was a reservist (the Ring-Knockers take care of their own).
The bosses in both situations knew. Blackwater's managers knew. Their customers in the State Department knew what Blackwater was doing. The Army brass in Baghdad knew what was going on for both the guards of Abu Ghraib and Blackwater's goons. Nothing was done until both blew up as major public relations fiascoes.
I think it is highly probable that because of both catastrophes, Americans have been killed by people who would not have gotten involved in the fighting without those sparks.
That Which Slithers Makes Their Courage Wither
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