Scott Thomas Beauchamp in the New Republic, 7/13/07:

saw her nearly every time I went to dinner in the chow hall at my base in Iraq. She wore an unrecognizable tan uniform, so I couldn't really tell whether she was a soldier or a civilian contractor. The thing that stood out about her, though, wasn't her strange uniform but the fact that nearly half her face was severely scarred. Or, rather, it had more or less melted, along with all the hair on that side of her head. She was always alone, and I never saw her talk to anyone. Members of my platoon had seen her before but had never really acknowledged her. Then, on one especially crowded day in the chow hall, she sat down next to us.

His editors today:

“The recollections of these three soldiers differ from Beauchamp's on one significant detail (the only fact in the piece that we have determined to be inaccurate): They say the conversation occurred at Camp Buehring, in Kuwait, prior to the unit's arrival in Iraq. When presented with this important discrepancy, Beauchamp acknowledged his error. We sincerely regret this mistake.”

As Dean Barnett writes, "I thought Beauchamp was supposed to communicate to TNR’s audience of urban sophisticates what things are like in Iraq, not Kuwait." Stephen Spruiell adds, "That's a rather significant detail to flub, given that the author's intent was to illustrate the morally deadening effects of war."

Maybe it's time for Beauchamp to attempt the Full Metal Jacket defense, something along the lines of "we were we were morally deadened even before combat, and so programmed to kill that we didn't know where we were." Or start shopping the movie rights.

Update: More from Ace of Spades.