The Pornography of War

As I write this, the Dowd's and Krugman's of the left are doubtlessly wringing their hands with macabre delight. A videotape has surfaced apparently showing a Marine in Fallujah firing a shot into the head of a wounded terrorist lying on the floor of the mosque he'd used as a bunker.

The New York Times will run this on the front page for several weeks if they can find a way to justify it, and Dan Rather will make sure it leads every broadcast as long as he thinks it can be used against the administration. The shrieking classes are almost sexually titillated as they ache for another Abu Graib as an excuse to attack a U.S. military they have always loathed.

We will see the still photos and the few brief seconds of video hundreds, if not thousands of times in the days and weeks ahead. What we will not see is the true story, and the media, which is not equipped to handle the truth, will most likely not even try to provide it in their rush to an accusatory climax.

This is what we know.

Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, came under fire from terrorists hiding in a mosque on Friday. 10 terrorists were killed and five more were wounded. The following day, another group of Marines from the same unit engaged in battle, and an embedded correspondent reported seeing fresh gunshot wounds on terrorists that had been injured the previous day.

It was during this second day operation that a group of Marines is seen coming up upon this group of terrorists, and a Marine is heard to yell several times, "He's faking he's dead!" The Marine then fired a single shot, killing the terrorist.

You will probably here most of this part of the story from the mainstream media, right before they try to crucify our soldiers in an almost orgasmic lust.

Here is what they won't tell you.

They won't tell you that shortly before this incident, one Marine was killed and five were injured when a booby-trapped body went off just a block away.

They won't tell you that insurgents that have faked being dead or wounded have risen up to shoot at our troops from behind in this battle. The will probably "forget" to mention that four of the five terrorists in the video had fresh wounds, meaning that after being wounded the first day and left to be taken prisoner, then once again raised arms and tried to kill American soldiers after having once been spared.

I don't know if what this young Marine did was right. I wasn't there. I can't imagine the pressure of days of close quarters battle. I simply don't now enough to form a judgment at this time. I will withhold judgment and let the Uniform Code of Military Justice runs its course.

War is jarringly violent and chaotic. I hope the media can try to understand this as they rush to pass judgment on this Marine, in what is almost sure to be a pornographic display of media hatred for this administration and our soldiers in the field.