"They're Still Alive"?

I'm afraid that atrocities are commonplace in Iraq. This is all so reminiscent of Vietnam, another war where everyone is a combatant and soldiers are surrounded by enemy.

The LAT fronts word that investigators are looking into claims that Marines killed as many as eight unarmed Iraqi prisoners. During the early days of the intense fighting to take control of Fallujah in November 2004, Marines detained a group of insurgents. When the Marines asked what they should do with the prisoners their superiors asked, "They're still alive?" They apparently took that to mean that the prisoners should be killed. This would make it the third known investigation into possible war crimes by Marines stationed out of California's Camp Pendleton.Type rest of the post here

This is horrible, but yet it's also understandable. Sitting here in my comfortable room on my computer, it's easy to pass judgement. But when you put young people with guns in a god-forsaken place where anarchy rules, what would any of us do? I'd like to think I'd be perfectly moral. Experience tells me otherwise. And of course, the problem is with our leadership, not soldiers put into impossible situations .....