A article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh in the May 22, 2000 issue the New Yorker, AOverwhelming Force@ suggests that Gen. Barry McCaffrey the nation=s drug czar since 1996, may have committed war crimes upon the conclusion of the 6-week Gulf War in early 1991. The cease-fire was announced on February 28, yet on March 2 the 24th Infantry Division, under McCaffrey=s command, carried out a massive attack on retreating Iraqi troops. According to McCaffrey, the action was in response to enemy fire. Dozens of others who were there saw it differently. One soldier confessed he felt guilty after the attack: Aguilty that we had slaughtered them so; guilty that we had performed so well and they so poorly; guilty that we were running up the score.... They were like children fleeing before us, unorganized, scared, wishing it all would end. We continued to pour it on.@ The article raises serious questions as to Gen. McCaffrey=s fitness for public office, yet no major media outlet has bothered to verify or refute the accounts reported in the articles.
