Im sorry but i really dont belive that this young man killed not one of those Iraq vitmines. I think that he was only doing the job that he was set out to do.

Unique Pendergraft, Cullman, USA/Alabama

If they didn't shoot first then they'd be killed. The Sargeant gave the right order if his men were going to survive room to room fighting with the armed insurgents they were convinced were in the building. The fact that they were probably incorrect about the insurgents being in there doesn't change that they were simply following their survival instinct. Throwing a grenade into a room of hostiles in urban warfare before charging in is standard practice in any army.

Drew W., San Francisco,

War is hell. Bad things happen, otherwise, we could call it peace. It's amazing to me that we are prosecuting our troops for 'war crimes' and trying to give terrorists the same rights that Americans enjoy. Where is the passage for 'right to counsel' in the koran? They do not use the Constitution to guide thier lives, they use a book that they interpret as telling them to destroy all that is America. In war, if you remain in an area of guerilla fighting, and you are dressed like them, you could be treated as combatants. When will be bring our sons and daughters home? God Bless America

Concerned for US, Cheyenne, Wyoming

To expect the marines to have behaved differently is to expect them to commit suicide. This case looks bad because there probably weren't insurgents in the houses cleared, but the Marines genuinely thought there were. If there had been insurgents in there and the Marines looked in first before shooting they'd get their heads blown off. In the early battle for Falujah the Marines had numerous casualties because they were worried about collateral civilian deaths. The Marines who survived that passed on to others not to make the same mistake. Comparing them to nazis is offensive. Just because a Marine follows his survival instinct he gets called a war criminal? These witch hunts of Iraq servicemen is getting insane. These Marines didn't do anything anyone else wouldn't in their place.

Drew W., San Francisco,

war is war...let the poor guy go.. he was doing a job that could not get done..there is no hope for Iraq...put yourself in this soldiers shoes and there might have been 100 civilians killed that day..
If anything, convict prize winning author and former head of CIA George Tenant, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Carl Rove and Bush because they are the dudes that started this mess, sent these Americans to Iraq, and are now hiding behind these brave marines who we're just trying to do their job in the face of dangers we could never imagine...

People are dying in Iraq and the middle east at alarming rates and the dangers and troubles there are just escalating... There is one major solution to this region that unfortunately does not bode well for most but that day will soon come.....

neil antin, Los Angeles, CA

"I told them to shoot first, ask questions later" said Sergeant Wuterich. In one simple sentence he has summed up American foreign policy since the Cold War. They will never learn, and the rest of the world continues to pay the price.

John Bard, Los Angeles, USA

'Shoot first, ask questions later' sounds good in the movies but it is simply no justification for the death of innocent people. This kind of brash, thoughtless decision making represents either cowardice or vengeful bloodlust, neither of which belong in our military.

J O, Fort Walton Beach,

And yet the so called insurgents create a couple of "Hadithas" a day.
Where is the out cry then?

Albert Ellestad, Vaxjo, Sweden

The judgement handed down at Nuremberg on Nazis convicted of war crimes would seem relevant, so roughly translated into the syntax of the US Marine Corps, it reads:
"I was only obeying orders ain't going to save your sorry ass."
Unfair, no question. But what's sauce for goose...

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Japan

I guess with the Marines notion of justice, no German would have been tried after World War II

Richard Kendall, Peoria, AZ