War - condemned to repetition

Bablylon Wales republishes an interview with the great Welsh photographer Philip Jones Griffiths. It's fascinating anyway, but I've just taught a session on the Vietnam war, and this question is stuck in my head:

In light of the recent 'torture' pictures coming out of Iraq how well, in your view, did American troops treat the civilian population in Vietnam?

When Lt. Calley was questioned during his trail for the My Lai massacre he was asked, "You threw babies in the air and shot them on the way down?" The reply was, "Yes sir, in the air." Iraq is only different because every soldier seems to have a digital camera.

Conversely, there are fewer people like Griffiths around: hounded out of war zones by press officers intent on making sure no atrocity photos appear. But, as Griffiths implies, the loss of a moral compass is so profound that the soldiers take their own photographs of atrocities they commit.