*NBC Says Marine shot dead wounded Iraqi prisoner/Reuters: Watch the media obsess about this one, too. I'm sure the Iraqi, ahem, insurgent would have been far more gentle if the tables had been turned. (Headlines @ Closin' Time)

Why is it that conservative commentators always use the "two wrongs make a right" argument when something goes wrong in Iraq? (see Abu Ghraib)

Shooting a wounded unarmed soldier in the head is wrong regardless of what the insurgents would do, or is that the standard of conduct we wish to hold ourselves to?

I guess it's this line of moral development (or lack thereof) that allows nutcases to justify bombing abortion clinics or murdering abortion clinic doctors...e.g. "well they kill babies!"

Unbelievable.

Bob Salsbury
Spokane Valley

DFO: The key word here, Bob, is "obsess." It's one thing to say that the Marine's conduct, if proven, was wrong (which it would be). It's another thing to obsess on every wrong Americans do in Iraq, as our media tend to do. The media went bananas over Abu Ghraib as a way to undercut the war effort and Bush without coming right out and declaring themselves on the side of the Lib-Left. Conduct at Abu Ghraib was wrong. But it didn't deserve the media's months of carpet bombing. Then, you should put yourself in the shoes of a Marine who's been shot in the face and seen his buddies killed by thugs such as the wounded man. Mebbe you wouldn't be so quick to judge this brave man.