Aaron Glantz reports for One World US, March 18:

SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND - Dozens of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans publicly testified this weekend about crimes they committed during the course of battle -- many of which were prompted by the orders or policies laid down by superior officers.

Some international law experts have said the soldiers' statements show the need for investigations into potential violations of international law by high-ranking officials in the Bush administration and the Pentagon.

The weekend gathering was designed to demonstrate that well-publicized incidents of U.S. brutality, including the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of an entire family of Iraqis in the town of Haditha, are not isolated incidents perpetrated by "a few bad apples," as many politicians and military leaders have claimed. They are part of a pattern, the organizers said, of "an increasingly bloody occupation."

The so-called "Winter Soldier" event brought together more than 300 war veterans to discuss soldiers' actions and the impact of the ongoing wars. The event was organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War and was named after a quote from 1776 by the American revolutionary Thomas Paine.

Among those testifying at the hearing was Cpl. Jason Washburn, a former Marine who served three tours in Iraq. Washburn served in some of the most dangerous parts of the country, including Najaf and Iraq's Western Anbar Province. A squad in his unit was responsible for the massacre of 26 civilians in Haditha in November 2005.

Washburn told the gathering his commanders encouraged lawless behavior.

"We were encouraged to bring 'drop weapons' or shovels, in case we accidentally shot a civilian, we could drop the weapon on the body and pretend they were an insurgent," he said.

"By the third tour, if they were carrying a shovel or bag, we could shoot them. So we carried these tools and weapons in our vehicles, so we could toss them on civilians when we shot them. This was commonly encouraged."

Another former Marine, John Michael Turner, tore off the medals he earned during two tours in Iraq and threw them on the ground.

"April 18, 2006 was the date of my first confirmed kill," he told the crowd other veterans. "He was innocent, I called him the fat man. He was walking back to his house and I killed him in front of his father and friend. My first shot made him scream and look into my eyes, so I looked at my friend and said, 'Well, I can't let that happen,' and shot him again. After my first kill I was congratulated."

Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst at the nonprofit group Human Rights Watch, told OneWorld "we shouldn't scapegoat soldiers for any orders they have been given."

"The bottom line should be where up the chain of command does this [investigation] need to go," he said. "When we're looking at torture at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay we need to ask where were the officers and what were they doing?"

In 2006, Garlasco co-authored a report for Human Rights Watch titled "No Blood, No Foul," which featured numerous anonymous U.S. soldiers telling stories of torturing detainees.

"Detainee abuse was an established and apparently authorized part of the detention and interrogation processes in Iraq for much of 2003-2005," the report reads. "The accounts also suggest that U.S. military personnel who felt the practices were wrong and illegal have faced significant obstacles at every turn when they attempted to report or expose the abuses."

See our last post on military dissent to the war.