Couldn't help myself. Can't believe myself.

There's been a lot in the news lately about this Marine that shot an "unarmed, wounded Iraqi." Obviously I wasn't there, so I don't really know what happened. Only a very few people do. But I couldn't help myself, and decided to give my opinion of these events anyway. I can't believe I'm about to say this, but here goes:

Lay off the poor guy! You can't hand a teenager (I don't know how old he was, but I'm guessing somewhere around 19) a gun and expect him to not shoot things with it. This guy has just been dropped into a hostile and foreign country where he saw first hand the realities of war. He's been subject to endless descriptions of "the enemy" as ruthless, heartless barbarians set on the destruction of democracy and America and all that he knows is good and true. He's seen his buddies wounded and killed by suicidal Iraqis. Most recently, he saw a booby-trapped dead Iraqi body blow up and kill another soldier in his unit. This isn't war like it was fought in the 18th and 19th centuries ("Okay, you shoot first, and then we'll shoot." "I must insist upon you having the first shot, ol' chap." "Oh, no, no, no. I couldn't possibly. Please, shoot us first.") I mean, really. What was this kid supposed to do? He's just spent months being taught how to kill people, and now you expect him to put all human emotions aside and follow rules that were set down in peaceful, un-stressful conference rooms by a bunch of diplomats who probably have never seen a dead body? C'mon people!

I'm not saying what he did was right; it wasn't. But what the fuck did you expect?