calenel wrote: "The Marine shot an insurgent terrorist in the act of committing a War Crime. The terrorist was out of uniform (a War Crime) and using a mosque as a military base (a War Crime). Other incidents had occurred with booby trapped bodies (a War Crime), false surrender (a War Crime) and faking injuries to lure into ambush (a War Crime)."
If it were so cut-and-dried, I'm surprised that the West Point professor didn't raise this as a defense. Indeed, I have never seen this argument until you raised it. So you might be right, but I'm puzzled why none of the many experts I've heard discuss this situation concur with your point of view. I don't pretend to be an expert on this incident or UCMJ in general, but I wasn't aware that UCMJ uses one set of rules of engagement for "legitimate" enemy combatants and a completely different set of rules for everyone else.
My position continues to be that I trust the UCMJ process and won't be surprised if that process ultimately results in a conviction in that case. Taking this position is NOT tantamount to siding with the enemy, nor do I in any way condone the utter disregard for life and rules of war exhibited by the enemy, which I find deplorable and despicable. I absolutely support the mission in Iraq. My simple point is that we do that cause and mission no good by ourselves abandoning all principles and stooping to the same level of lawlessness as the enemy.
"I was ordered to do it" was not a defense at Nuremburg nor
should "But they did things that were even worse" be a defense in this instance. There's no question that the fact that the enemy has booby-trapped dead bodies etc. is absolutely an important factor in determining whether this marine might reasonably have assessed there was a credible threat posed by the individual he shot.