[AbercrombieChick]

Marines pointed their guns at another prone Iraqi who was reaching out weakly with one hand, but they backed off without shooting at him, the videotape showed. THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THAT PRISONER AND DEAD ONE IN QUESTION. If you are not clearly disarmed, under Geneva Convention Protocol 1 Article 37 you have NO claim to prisoner-of-war status. If you surrendur by a) holding up a white flag and/or b) present clear disarment without intent to betray your adversary's confidence that you are disarmed, THEN you are protected under Geneva.

Any less than that, and no person in combat is liable to hold their lives over yours. Period.

[shibumi]

AND, if there's still any question of what constitutes surrender, just ask the experts - the French.

(Happy workers in textile factories busily sewing white flags to a background of accordian music. - Chirac's idea of industry.)

[B-Chan]

Good point. Let’s also keep in mind that a) the guy the Marine shot was a non-uniformed combatant (i.e. a terrorist) and b) was operating out of a known sanctuary (a mosque). Either of these facts combined with the circumstances at hand placed him outside of the protection of international law, which addresses only the rights of uniformed enemy combatants. Our Marine had every right to shoot the guy, as the upcoming investigation will prove.

The “reporter” who made the tape is openly hostile to the current war effort and has stated so publicly on numerous occasions. Why the DoD allows such “reporters” (or, indeed, any members of the news media at all) to accompany our forces in battle is a mystery to me.