Live Blogging Winter Soldier

First panel is about rules of engagement, how soldiers operate in a combat zone. Hard to listen to. Steve Murtillo just described "suppressive fire" in a civilian area and noted that "things degenerate over time". His testimony echoed my most profound lesson in Vietnam: the battlefield is someone's home. Before that Steven Casey described a raid that terrified a woman and her children and destroyed her house because they had the wrong house.

I can hear the old soldiers snorting about a bunch of whiners who can't take it. These whiners should just suck it up like the old guys. Fortunately, the veterans speaking this weekend will not be quiet; they will tell the civilians about the acts performed in their name.

The testimony is difficult to hear but it rings so true. These guys see and did the same things I did in Vietnam, except far more so. I understand the fear, the black humor, confusion and disillusionment they describe. Adam Kokesh quoted from the first Winter Soldier hearing where a veteran warned "don't ever let your country do this to you." And yet we did it again.

More later.