War in Fallujah

How can we possibly pass judgement on the young US Marine for doing what he felt was necessary in a life or death battle.

We know it is common for Islamofascist insurgents to fake being dead in order to draw coalition troops close enough to them to detonate homicide bombs or draw hidden weapons to try and get just one more soldier before the head off to "paradise." Here's a sample from the story linked above:

Gagging amid the overpowering stench of rotting flesh, the Iraqis had to take special care because of the danger that insurgents have booby-trapped some bodies with explosives. On one stoop, the Iraqis pushed over a corpse and a grenade rolled out of its pocket. The weapon didn't detonate, but Marines quickly hurried the workers away.

Andrew Sullivan has this to say on his blog:

The video is grim enough; and if the marine in question is found guilty of violating rules of conduct, then he should face punishment. But I have to say I cannot stand in judgment of this young man, after what must have been brutal, terrifying days of urban conflict. This is surely what they call "what happens in wartime." It may not be morally defensible; but it is psychologically understandable. Franly, I'm grateful for what this man, half my age, is doing with his fellows in unspeakably terrifying circumstances. Compare his action with Abu Ghraib, and you can see the difference. One a snap judgment in a furious battle context; the other a pre-meditated example of abuse and murder of prisoners in U.S. custody.

In short, war really is hell and we can never ever know what sort of pressure our brave soldiers are experiencing. We most certainly cannot and should not judge the Marine's actions without the most overwhelming evidence of a misdeed.

For a taste of actual barbarity, please see the following from the Times of London:

In the south of Fallujah yesterday, US Marines found the armless, legless body of a blonde woman, her throat slashed and her entrails cut out. Benjamin Finnell, a hospital apprentice with the US Navy Corps, said that she had been dead for a while, but at that location for only a day or two. The woman was wearing a blue dress; her face had been disfigured. It was unclear if the remains were the body of the Irish-born aid worker Margaret Hassan, 59, or of Teresa Borcz, 54, a Pole abducted two weeks ago. Both were married to Iraqis and held Iraqi citizenship; both were kidnapped in Baghdad last month.

US and Iraqi troops have discovered kidnappers’ lairs filled with corpses or emaciated prisoners half-mad with fear, and piles of bodies of men who had refused to fight with the insurgents. As the guerrillas run their last sprint from death, sympathy for their cause is running out among Iraqis.

What do I think of the Marine's actions? Based on the information that we have at this time, I say any world with one less terrorist is a very GOOD world.