Who is justifying anything? War is hell, and I despise
war worse than most. So, you have been in a war? And you,
of course, did it all right. You were in combat, I assume,
and always did it all right. Or maybe you just studied
theory. - You sound all too ready to hang our men at
sunrise. - I suggest this Marine take an early out and
leave the fighting to perfect soldiers like you. When
enough soldiers and Marines take early retirement from the
military, perhaps the DU geniuses can be drafted. This
should be interesting.
Aren't you the one implying something wrong was done in the video? If nothing's wrong with it, then why not let it be seen?
The arguments seem to be varied here... and this one you just put forward seems to admit that something wrong happened. Well, if something went wrong, why defend it as "standard operating procedure" and not admit it was a screwup!?
Personally, I suspect this Marine was unaware that the man he shot was a previously captured prisoner, and he didn't hear or listen to the cameraman telling him that. Honest mistake, likely. Also, perhaps it's someone else's fault if those captives weren't searched. Or if they were, that it wasn't communicated. We just don't know. So IMHO, we shouldn't fry the cameraman, nor jump to the shooter's defense, prematurely.