An old story, I know, but...

And, am I the only one out there bothered by the muted reaction to the piece in the New York Times of almost two weeks ago, in which a U.S. Marine Corps sniper is quoted, sorry, but "the chick got in the way," after he hit an Iraqi woman while trying to shoot a legitimate target?

When the story broke, I expected a widespread outcry, and at least the semblance of some sort of military back-pedalling. ("Ah, umm, yes, we''ve spoken to the soldier in question and he assures us that the quote was taken out of context. What he reallymeant was Sorry. I didn't mean to hit her, but she suddenly got in the way; there was nothing I could do. We train our soldiers to avoid civilian casualties blah blah blah.")

Instead, though, the quote has dropped into the ripple-less pond of media and public indifference. What gives?

I remember thinking at the time, "Morally, we've already lost the war: we've turned a generation of our young men into cold-blooded killers."