That shooting by a Marine in Fallujah

Caught some info about in on the NBC news last night- just happened to be in a place where it was on- and based on the incomplete information they gave, my first thought was, "So what?"

Among the things I don't know;
Were his hands in sight?
If so, were they open & empty, or closed?
Did he react at all to commands?

If his hands are out of sight, you have no idea what he may be holding, gun, grenade or detonator.
If his hands are in sight, but closed, you have to look for anything he may be holding, and/or any wires.
If he can obviously hear you and ignores you, that factors in with the above.

You're in a place where the bad guys are booby-trapping the bodies of their wounded and dead(hey, NBC, that's not a new tactic, it's been around a long time), and the wounded themselves may well use a weapon- gun, grenade or bomb detonator- to try and take a few infidels with them. You do not take chances with them, not if you want to stay alive and whole.

So, based on what I do know, big deal. We're dealing with people who think cutting people's heads off on camera shows what true believers in God they are, and they want to die- preferably while killing one of us. I know a lot of people are going to scream about how horrible we are, etc. Screw 'em. Those marines are alive, and the bad guys are dead. And that is the point of this.

There are, from what I understand, basically three ways to win a war. 1, you outmaneuver the other side so badly they realize they can't win and either surrender or sue for peace. 2, you smash them so badly in battle- maybe several battles- that they give up. 3, if 1 or 2 don't do the job, you kill them until either the survivors surrender, or there are none left to fight. It ain't pretty or nice, but that's the way it works. The Nazis fought until the very end. The Japanese were set up to do the same, hoping to bleed us so badly we'd negotiate a peace leaving that government in power... until Fat Man and Little Boy shocked them enough to end it. The people we're fighting here are just as bad, they'd rather see the whole world blighted than not see their beliefs in control; and since being dhimmi, converted or dead is not something most of us will tolerate, it's on until the end. And stopping people like this, things like this will happen.

Semper Fi, guys.