INTRODUCTION

It is now horrifyingly apparent that American prosecution of the war in Iraq, and its attendant detention policies, have been rife with abuses. American soldiers killed Iraqi civilians by throwing them into the Tigris, shooting them in “massacres” at Haditha and Mahmoudiya, or running them over in supply-carrying convoys intent on moving through traffic. During raids, it became “very common” to shoot the family dog in front of the family who owned it and routine to “destroy” the family's property with no subsequent compensation. Detainees died after having been exposed to extreme temperatures or subjected to stress positions; in one case, an Iraqi prisoner suffered a lethal heart attack after he was forced to do long sessions of jumping jacks with a sandbag over his head.

Cries of ignorance, perhaps once possible, are now unavailable and unavailing. The pictorial evidence has been too graphic, the pleas for judicial relief too numerous, and the revelations by journalists and veterans too widespread and wrenching, for Americans to invoke the Bush administration's penchant for secrets and deceit (and sometimes that of the Obama administration as well) as sources of immunity. The question of responsibility therefore presses upon us: what responsibility do Americans bear for these war crimes?