War is Hell

A recent news story has dominated headlines and is sparking controversy, even after the Election issue has been decided. It seems an "embedded reporter" with a group of Marines was present when this group stormed a mosque, and after a prolonged battle with the insurgents inside, took over the Mosque and entered it to clear out any remaining enemy. As the Marines encountered wounded and dead insurgents, one Marine came across an unarmed, critically wounded enemy soldier, and proceeded to kill him. The reporter with this group then gave his breathless account as the "horrific events" unfolded.
Any of you bleeding heart, tree hugging, vegetarians that oppose everything, please leave the room, what am I about to say will offend you.
War is Hell. Plain and simple. We, the people of the United States, allowed our President to invade a foreign country on the flimsiest pretense known in history. He sent troops there to invade and then occupy Iraq, slapping them with our values and ideals, under the guise of "freedom" and "civil rights". Then, after the occupation, kept our young men and women there long past the date they were promised to return by. And now, we are going to discipline those same young soldiers for killing the enemy.

What do you want them to do? Coddle the enemy? Give them food and shelter, medical attention and ammunition so that they can heal up, arm themselves, and in the name of Allah, drive a car full of explosives into a police builing in Baghdad? Our Army is at war. War. Where people get killed. And yes, sometimes those people are innocent. Almost 3000 of them were innocent the morning of Sept 11, 2001. I do not in any way, shape, or form, condone this war. The reason we went to war were wrong, and the reasons we are staying there are wrong as well. But we are there. And we are at war. We cannot and should not limit what the forces we send in to "liberate" can do in the line of duty. Yes, killing another human is tragic. In this case, that human was an enemy soldier. He knew the risks when he signed on and picked up a weapon. Just as did the member of that same Marine unit knew the risks when he flipped over a booby trapped dead body and was killed in the explosion.
How dare we discipline a soldier that kills the enemy. What message does that send to the rest of our troops? What happens when the next Marine hesitates, considering his career with the military when he has an enemy in his sights? He will hesitate, and he will die. You cannot win a war with people willing to drive suicide cars and planes into buildings under the promise of virgins in the afterlife if you do not kill them each and every time you spot one of them. We train the soldiers with guns and knives, not teddy bears and Pixie Sticks. We train them to kill, show them how to kill, and then punish them when they do. If our soldiers do not kill the enemy, then our soldiers will be killed.