Lay Off The Marine, Pinkos

Is there something wrong with chunking a grenade into a room filled with people who were just shooting at you? I don't think so. I would be unable to control the impulse to make sure nobody in there shot at me anymore. So imagine what I think about a Marine only firing one round into a wounded Iraqi who might have been trying to kill the Marine and his squadmates. The Iraqi got off light.

This Marine over in Fallujah has landed in some hot water, undeservedly. I think he showed remarkable restraint, all things considered. He only fired a shot. I think I would have been tempted to call in an air strike.

This shows why I would not be a good soldier. The kind of self-restraint this Marine showed is incredible. This guy was checking for prisoners. I would have done everything in my power to make sure there WERE no prisoners. This is why that Marine is a far better man than I ever will be. I'm probably six kinds of evil for thinking that, but oh well.

This whole incident makes me respect our soldiers all the more. I cannot fathom walking into a room, knowing everyone in that room was just shooting at me seconds ago. The courage that takes is almost inconceivable. As a civilian who has not been in combat, what right do I have to pass judgment on this Marine? None at all, I think. We should all keep that in mind. Though I do tend to think his actions were perfectly justified, from what I can see.

I think high explosives would have handled the situation nicely, from my point of view. Besides, the enemy has a penchant for blowing themselves up anyway. Why not help out a bit? Don't the liberals want people to exercise their deviant impulses? The Marine was just trying to be tolerant of the Iraqi's diversity. He gave the Iraqi 5.56mm of tolerance. A little goes a long way.

This brings me to another point. Why in the world do we allow reporters with our soldiers in combat anyway? It seems to me our soldiers might be worried about keeping these nimrods alive, when they should only be worried about killing the enemy and keeping themselves alive. Embedded reporters are not helping anything. If anything, let the reporters go in first, ahead of the troops by about 50 yards. At least they'd do some good. Imagine the great footage they'd get. Somebody would send the camera back later, I'm sure.

In WWI and II, the media got footage the military released. That way, no secret information was made public knowledge. (Remember Geraldo?) This media footage has been made into propaganda for the enemy. That used to be called sedition. Now, it's called free press. This is wrong. It endangers our troops, it provides intelligence to the enemy, it provides propaganda for the enemy, and it encourages the rest of the world to jump to conclusions; without the benefit of the trooper's context. I see no good in it whatsoever.

Lay off the Marine, pinkos. He's a better man than we are, by far.