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Atrocities? Never. Atrocities? Of course.

Abu Ghraib/Gitmo/torture

By now you've heard that a Marine from Third Battalion, First Regiment of the First Marine Division summarily executed a wounded, unarmed Iraqi in front of an NBC News reporter.

I just saw the footage myself on CNN. If the story is as it seems, this is a clear war crime. You do not shoot unarmed prisoners who pose no threat.

Curious, I checked out a couple of right-wing chat boards. (I do something this painful only because self-mutilation is too much of a fashion statement among the kids these days.)

And there we find the very definition of doublethink.

Sure enough, many of the very same people who were so outraged that John Kerry would dare describe known atrocities to which the perpetrators had already confessed, insisting that this was a betrayal, and American troops would never do such a thing... are now saying that shooting an unarmed man who presents no threat is completely justified.

There's only one way this mindset is consistent: if you believe that Americans, by definition, are always on the side of light and therefore never commit atrocities. Whatever Americans do is justified.

There are some notable people in the not-so-distant past who believed something similar.

American troops died in large number to fight them.

What followed was the creation of a large body of international law on what is and is not a war crime. Much of this law was purchased with American blood.

And now... this is where we are.

One final point: the soldier in question has at least one defense I can think of, which is ultimately human and understandable, even without condoning what he did. In the midst of a dangerous situation, furious from earlier combat, sleep-deprived, overheated, god knows what all the guy went through... he made a momentary, snap decision, one which he may or may not come to regret for the rest of his life.

OK. That'll all be at the trial and so on. That's one thing.

But the people condoning this sort of summary execution as we speak... words fail me. They have no such defense. Most of them are sitting in comfy chairs enjoying a broadband connection, with all the time in the world to consider moral questions.

And they say killing people in cold blood is A-OK.

I am much more frightened of them than of this particular soldier.