War Crimes & Military Atrocities
The atomic bombs killed up to 226000 civilians in two cities. Whether the decision was justified or a war crime is a debate historians have not resolved — and this article doesn't pretend otherwise.
War Crimes & Military Atrocities
Operation Meetinghouse killed more people in one night than the Hiroshima bomb. General LeMay said he expected to be tried as a war criminal if the U.S. had lost.
War Crimes & Military Atrocities
Executive Order 9066 sent 120000 Japanese Americans to internment camps in 1942. Two-thirds were U.S. citizens. The Supreme Court upheld it. It took 46 years for an apology.
War Crimes & Military Atrocities
From the Philippine War to Abu Ghraib: the documented pattern of U.S. forces killing civilians and the accountability that always stopped at the lowest rank.
War Crimes & Military Atrocities
The Abu Ghraib photos in 2004 documented systematic torture authorized from the top. Eleven soldiers were convicted. No officer above staff sergeant was charged.
War Crimes & Military Atrocities
U.S. soldiers killed up to 300 South Korean civilians at No Gun Ri in 1950. The Army denied it for 50 years then expressed regret — no charges filed.
War Crimes & Military Atrocities
The Philippine-American War killed up to 600000 Filipinos through combat and deliberate reconcentration policies. The general responsible was admonished and pensioned.
War Crimes & Military Atrocities
American soldiers killed 347-504 unarmed Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in 1968. One soldier was convicted. The officers who built the system walked free.
Disasters With Dark Causes
American disasters where the real cause was a human decision — from the Johnstown Flood in 1889 to the Flint water crisis in 2014 — collected in two series covering nine events and 3800 deaths.
Disasters With Dark Causes
Three American infrastructure failures — the Hyatt Regency collapse the I-35W bridge and the Flint water crisis — share the same pattern: errors that oversight should have caught and accountability that never reached the decision-makers.
Disasters With Dark Causes
Between 6000 and 12000 Flint children were permanently harmed by lead after state emergency managers switched the city's water source in 2014 and suppressed the evidence for 18 months.
Disasters With Dark Causes
13 people died when the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis collapsed on August 1 2007 — a design flaw from 1967 that 40 years of federal inspections never found despite a structurally deficient rating.