Bashing marines ‘bolsters terrorists’

THIS editorial, from yesterday’s New York Post, defends the marine who shot dead a wounded Iraqi:

“Get set for another round of America-bashing - this time over charges a US Marine shot to death an apparently disarmed, wounded terrorist inside a mosque in Fallujah.

“Emphasis on apparently, please.

“Meanwhile, as the anti-American rhetoric has begun to fill the airwaves, the cold-blooded execution of a kidnapped female humanitarian aid worker by Iraqi terrorists is met with the usual, ho-hum, ‘ain’t it just terrible’ pablum.

“All that can fairly be assumed about the terrorist who was shot in Fallujah is that he was member of a movement dedicated to twisting Western rules of warfare and humane conduct into lethal weapons to be used against Americans.

“And that he was effectively allied with the killers of Margaret Hassan, the Iraq-based, Irish-born director of CARE - and presumed victim in a videotape showing a woman being executed by a pistol shot to the head. Does the marine who fired the fatal shot at the injured terrorist deserve the benefit of every last doubt? Yes, absolutely. The human rights fussbudgets have not a thing to say about the brutal murder of Margaret Hassan - even as they attack those brave soldiers who are risking their lives to cleanse Iraq of Hassan’s murderers.

“The left-wing and anti-US media has provided America’s critics (and the terrorists) with wonderfully extensive coverage of the Abu Ghraib abuses. And, sure enough, yesterday Al-Jazeera TV was happily airing footage of the marine’s action in Fallujah. At the same time, the network declared it would not air the slaughter of Margaret Hassan - no doubt, to avoid generating bad publicity for the terrorists.

“No one should be fooled by what’s going on here.

“Those who equate the head-choppings and cold-blooded executions by terrorists with battlefield shootings by Americans acting in self-defence only bolster the terrorists’ cause.

“Some do so deliberately. The others are useful idiots.

“Both are complicit - morally, if not legally.”