The American Spectator

TNR claims to have corroborated the other two incidents; however, if its editorial is to be taken at face value, then its again settled lazily for something that cast the shadow of truth on Beauchamp's far more detailed narrative, rather than actually (a) investigating further, or (b) owing up to having published a gross exaggeration. p>Take, for example, the child's skull incident. Said Beauchamp in his essay (emphases added): BR> BLOCKQUOTE>One private, infamous as a joker and troublemaker, found the top part of a human skull, which was almost perfectly preserved. It even had chunks of hair, which were stiff and matted down with dirt. He squealed as he placed it on his head like a crown. It was a perfect fit. As he marched around with the skull on his head, people dropped shovels and sandbags, folding in half with laughter. No one thought to tell him to stop. No one was disgusted . Me included. p> The private wore the skull for the rest of the day and night. Even on a mission, he put his helmet over the skull . He observed that he was grateful his hair had just been cut—since it would make it easier to pick out the pieces of rotting flesh that were digging into his head. /BLOCKQUOTE> BR>And here's what TNR managed to find out: there was indeed a children's burial site (no surprise there; the 1-18 — Beauchamp's unit — was known to have found one while building their combat outpost); beyond that, this is all that it could extract from the “witnesses” who “laughed” at the supposed stunt: BR>