So How Long Do You Think it's Going to be...

...before Ken MacKenzie becomes Ann Coulter's new favorite whipping boy? I bet his name comes up in her next media appearance.

This is really heartbreaking.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - As the families of two missing soldiers waited to hear if two bodies found Tuesday were their loved ones, the uncle of one lashed out at the government, saying it didn't do enough to bring the men home safe.

"Because the U.S. government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life," Ken MacKenzie, uncle of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, told NBC's "Today" show.

U.S. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said the military has recovered what are believed to be the remains of two missing soldiers, but he said the cause of death was "undeterminable at this point."

A member of the Army's casualty assistance office was meeting with Menchaca's mother Tuesday morning and said it could take two or three days for DNA tests to be completed.

Menchaca's mother, Maria Vasquez, was sobbing when she answered the door of her Brownsville, Texas, home. Her niece, Felipa Gomez, said the family had been watching television news reports of the Iraqi military announcement.

"She's hanging in there," and still holding on to hope that Menchaca will make it back alive, Gomez said. "She might be frightened, but she won't show it."

Sgt. 1st Class Jesus Rolnmedina, who spoke with her, said the bodies "had a lot of trauma."

And I'm sure that's putting it mildly. The thing is, I'm willing to bet that we're going to be seeing more stories like this as time goes on. As more news comes out about torture and murder, when we hear stories of "Hadji girl" songs and accountability is either weak or completely ignored, brutality will be met with brutality.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bodies of two U.S. soldiers reported captured last week have been recovered, and an Iraqi defense ministry official said Tuesday the men were "killed in a barbaric way." The U.S. military said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.

[...]

Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility for killing the soldiers, and said the successor to slain terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had "slaughtered" them, according to a Web statement that could not be authenticated. The language in the statement suggested the men had been beheaded.

[...]

The director of the Iraqi defense ministry's operation room, Maj. Gen. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed, said the bodies showed signs of having been tortured. "With great regret, they were killed in a barbaric way," he said.

The claim of responsibility was made in the name of the Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella organization of five insurgent groups led by al-Qaida in Iraq. The group had posted an Internet statement Monday claiming it was holding the two American soldiers captive.

"We give the good news ... to the Islamic nation that we have carried God's verdict by slaughtering the two captured crusaders," said the claim, which appeared on an Islamic militant Web site where insurgent groups regularly post statements and videos.

"With God Almighty's blessing, Abu Hamza al-Muhajer carried out the verdict of the Islamic court" calling for the soldiers' slaying, the statement said.

The statement said the soldiers were "slaughtered," suggesting that al-Muhajer beheaded them. The Arabic word used in the statement, "nahr," is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.

Barbarism met with barbarism. Torture and murder met with torture and murder.

An unwinnable war. An "enemy" that will never be wiped out. No end in sight. No plan.

And another family buries their butchered child.

(Cross-posted over at my place.)