Full... Metal... Jacket

Now here's a good idea (Hat tip: DailyPundit). Send the embedded media in before the marines to check the dead and wounded.

This situation reminds me in a way of that sniper scene in Full Metal Jacket. The platoon - 'Hotel' Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines - lose their way in Hue City. They send a marine, Eightball, to check that the area is secure while they wait for help. It isn't. A sniper picks him off from a hidden position. Eightball falls to the ground in view of the rest of the company, and another marine, Doc J, runs in to help him. When he reaches Eightball he gets shot.

A few marines, including Cowboy and Joker, move in to try and locate the sniper so they can get their men out. The sniper sights Cowboy through a hole in the wall and shoots him in the chest. He dies soon after.

The difference is that this is Hollywood. Once they call 'cut' Eightball, Doc J and Cowboy get up and laugh about how the explosive squibs sting their nipples when they burst, and then go for drinks and dinner in a fancy restaurant. They ain't using no squibs in Fallujah.

Guerilla warfare doesn't use the same playbook as regular battle. The Geneva Conventions don't apply for shit. It's nice to think that we can always play fair and follow the rules, but when bodies are booby-trapped and a sniper could be an innocent looking teenage girl, who can blame a marine for bending the rules? I know I can't, and until I grow the balls to go out there and put myself in harms way I'm not gonna complain when one of our guys doesn't play fair. I'd expect the same common sense from the media.