No it isn't. We prosecuted US officers for doing the exact same thing in the Phillippine-American war, albeit not very energetically.

The relevance of the GP's statement lies in three controversial-sounding assertions that are rapidly becoming irrefutable:

   1) Most people are dumbasses

   2) Often willfully so

   3) This has troubling implications for democracy, representative or otherwise

These assertions, if true, affect everything in our public and private lives, including the development and dissemination of the story at hand.