Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Having never been in face-to-face combat, I defer to folks like Kev and Wallace. And Birdie has even more recent experience. All three of these men are loathe to condemn Kevin Sites, and all three agree, as do I, that what the Marine did was the right thing to do.

Romantics and novelists quote flags of truce and Geneva Conventions. The soldier sticks to reality and until he is totally in control Rule 5.56 applies.

We have a lot to be thankful for this year. One of the things each of us must be thankful for is the freedom we have to simply talk about this situation.

God bless that Marine. And God bless Kevin Sites.

Kevin Sites was the man with a camera in Fallujah. I finally reached him through an email that isn’t open to public knowledge to ask what happened. He was grateful for a message not filled with condemnation.

He also told me about his latest post, an open letter to the Marines he covers:

This week I’ve even been shocked to see myself painted as some kind of anti-war activist. Anyone who has seen my reporting on television or has read the dispatches on this website is fully aware of the lengths I’ve gone to play it straight down the middle — not to become a tool of propaganda for the left or the right.

But I find myself a lightning rod for controversy in reporting what I saw occur in front of me, camera rolling.

It’s time you to have the facts from me, in my own words, about what I saw — without imposing on that Marine — guilt or innocence or anything in between. I want you to read my account and make up your own minds about whether you think what I did was right or wrong. All the other armchair analysts don’t mean a damn to me.

Go read it.

The situation in Fallujah shown all over television yesterday has happened many times in the past. A Marine kills a wounded opponent. This time, an NBC cameraman captures it on tape.

The problem with the video is that there is no context to judge it by except for some voice-over. I’ve seen it before, and used it in teaching classes. It is almost identical to the situation discussed on this series. Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings are panelists. Jennings says he wouldn’t air it. Wallace says he would.

I won’t even think to judge the Marine–others will do so quickly. But this is nothing like the Abu Ghraib situation. Those soldiers were rear echelon jailers who got bored and did stupid things. This is an area where bodies are booby-trapped, wounded enemy rise up to spray the area with AK-47 fire, or blow themselves up. Your life depends on your situational awareness, and that of your squad mates. The sound track indicates nobody is shocked about the incident. Adrenalin is running high.

And for all the media folks who will spend hours wringing their hands about this, I would remind you this is precisely what you applauded John Kerry for–shooting a wounded enemy.