[lilycicero]

Laughner said he found no evidence of insurgents in the two houses. He did discover some shell casings in the entrance to one home that likely came from Iraqis' AK-47 rifles mixed with some others from U.S. troops' M-16s.

This is no Laughn'(er) matter. I see no evidence but here's some shell casings in front of the home? What's that party favors?

[RedRover]

At least SSgt Laughner actually looked at the shell casings in houses and two. In the LCpl Sharratt hearing, he said he thought he saw AK shell casings but wasn't sure (wouldn't you have leaned over and picked one up to see?).

[Girlene]

I see no evidence but here's some shell casings in front of the home? What's that party favors?

LOL, lily. Shell casings from Iraqi Ak-47 rifles sounds like evidence of insurgents to me - at least outside the home.

The lead prosecutor, Lt. Col. Atterbury, gives the court ROE cards that Tatum's unit was supposed to have. On that card one of the rules was that Marines need to positively identify targets as having a hostile intent before using deadly force....“Marines have to be held accountable,” he added. .

Well, an IED that kills one Marine, leaves two others wounded (one seriously), small arms fire coming from both sides of the road.....there's the hostile intent. Isn't there something on those cards that says you can use deadly force to defend yourself? It appears to me they thought they were defending themselves against hostile intent with a squad that had lost a fourth of their fighting ability.

Picking on the specifice of whether ROE were followed exactly sounds a far cry from "executions" to me. Maybe they're backing off the "execution" junk.