Citation
Since the U.S. invasion in March of 2003, William Langewiesche has made 10 reporting trips to Iraq and chronicled its deterioration with clear-eyed precision. In perhaps his most ambitious reporting effort, Langewiesche carefully reconstructed the killing by U.S. Marines of 24 Iraqi civilians in the city of Haditha in November, 2005. In his hands, Haditha becomes not only a story about the Americans and Iraqis caught up in a tragic chain of events, but also a cautionary tale about the rules of engagement under which American forces operate in Iraq. Haditha, he wrote, "is what defeat looks like in this war."

Excerpt
Rules of Engagement
November 2006
The Euphrates is a peaceful river. It meanders silently through the desert province of Anbar like a ribbon of life, flanked by the greenery that grows along its banks, sustaining palm groves and farms, and a string of well-watered cities and towns. Fallujah, Ramadi, Hit, Haditha. These are among the places made famous by battle-conservative, once quiet communities where American power has been checked, and where despite all the narrow measures of military success the Sunni insurgency continues to grow. On that short list, Haditha is the smallest and farthest upstream. It extends along the Euphrates' western bank with a population of about 50,000, in a disarray of dusty streets and individual houses, many with walled gardens in which private jungles grow. It has a market, mosques, schools, and a hospital with a morgue. Snipers permitting, you can walk it top to bottom in less than an hour, allowing time enough to stone the dogs. Before the American invasion, it was known as an idyllic spot, where families came from as far away as Baghdad to while away their summers splashing in the river and sipping tea in the shade of trees. No longer, of course. Now, all through Anbar, and indeed the Middle East, Haditha is known as a city of death, or more simply as a name, a war cry against the United States.
November 19, 2005, is the date people remember. Near the center of Haditha the U.S. Marines had established a forward operating base they called Sparta. It was manned by the roughly 200 Marines of Kilo Company of the Third Battalion, First Marine Division, out of Camp Pendleton, California. This was Kilo Company's third tour in Iraq. It had participated in the invasion, in the spring of 2003, and again in the hard-fought battle for Fallujah in the fall of 2004. Because of normal rotations, however, only about two-thirds of its current members had been to Iraq before. The average age was 21. The company commander was a captain, an Annapolis graduate named Lucas McConnell, who was 32 and, like all but one of his lieutenants, was on his first tour at war. McConnell was a can-do guy, more of a believer than a thinker, disciplined, moderately religious, somewhat moralistic, and deeply invested in his beloved Marine Corps.

Biography
William Langewiesche assumed the newly created post of international correspondent for Vanity Fair in 2006. Prior to that, Langewiesche was a national correspondent at The Atlantic. During his tenure there, he was nominated for eight consecutive National Magazine Awards, and won in 2002 for reporting for his article "The Crash of EgyptAir 990." Langewiesche is the author of numerous books, among them American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center, an insider's account of the cleanup of the Twin Towers, and The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime. His book The Atomic Bazaar: The Rise of the Nuclear Poor is due out this spring. Prior to joining The Atlantic, he had been a professional pilot. Langewiesche resides in California and France.