I will not condemn the U.S. Marine who shot a supposedly wounded insurgent in Fallujah. In fact, he has my deepest respect.

From the Independent:

The footage showed several Marines with a group of prisoners who were either lying on the floor or propped against a wall of the bombed-out building. One Marine can be heard declaring that one of the prisoners was faking his injuries.

“He’s fucking faking he’s dead. He faking he’s fucking dead,” says the Marine. At that point a clatter of gunfire can be heard as one of the Marines shoots the prisoner. Another voice can then be heard saying: “He’s dead now.”

We can clamor all we want about the Geneva Conventions. I think they’re swell. And no, just because the enemy is disobeying them (by say, shooting at U.S. soldiers from mosques) doesn’t give us license to do the same. But under no circumstances are American forces required to take unnecessary, irrational risks in order to preserve the life of a bloodthirsty jihadist thug.

The insurgents in Iraq have adopted a brutal form of gorilla warfare that utilizes any available method of killing coalition forces (and relief workers). They are certainly not above playing dead for a few moments in an effort to lure a few kindhearted Marines to their doom.

This is a war, folks. Our culture seems to have forgotten what that means.