Jed:

I managed to catch you on O’Reilly last night. I wish he had asked you about an underlying issue: the rules of engagement in this conflict. As you noted, the Corps is remarkable for how few such incidents they have had in their long history of working in nasty places. But what alternatives do Marines have in their current predicament short of over-reaction on one side, and being hamstrung from protecting themselves on the other? From this civilian observer’s perspective, they seem to be in a profoundly difficult circumstance. Their overall sterling performance in the midst of such conditions really makes the “ethics training” now promised seem like a sad joke. (Shouldn’t stateside office workers get ethics training before the military does?)