I heard Ollie North say that and it is disturbing as I am afraid it will become the story. But I'm not sure the Iraqis will look at it the way our media does.
The people of Fallujah, as has been reported, are sick of the insurgents, and I'm not sure they will see this as a bad thing. This is not Abu Graib as these insurgents/terrorists are largely not Iraqis and the Iraqi people are sick of being terrorized by these insurgents.
So even though this will get frenetic and gleeful coverage by our media, what is important is how the Iraqis, the people of Fallujah see it, and I don't think they'll see it as being all that bad that one less terrorist/insurgent from another country is killing and terrorizing the citizens of their city.
At least I hope that is how they perceive it.
From your fingers to God's eyes.
I pray it is so. That Marine may not be over 22. He is someones son, brother, husband, boyfriend. It just seems so wrong to have to "punish" him to prove a public relations arguement that we follow the ROE. I know that he Marines have a very high honor code of their own, thats what makes them special guys and I have no doubt that this young guy would stand up tall to whatever the punishment.
But, to punish someone for show, like some have said may be necessary is wrong. As has been said a hundred times on this thread - that Marine COULD NOT HAVE KNOWN if the guy was booby trapped or has a grenade. He could have saved the lives of the other Marines and the reporter and I bet we never would have heard about that. All in a days work.
Sad to say, but believe this: this story will be spun into teh next Abu Graib, and terrorists will behead more civilians and use the murder of probably already dead terrorists as their excuse in the next videos