[Beckwith]

You might want to send Kevin Sites a "thank you note" for placing his Pulitzer ambitions above the interests of his country and his fellow citizens serving in the US Marine Corps.

kevin@kevinsites.net

[snarks_when_bored]

We have to be realistic. Sites was tagging along, videotaping whatever happened, with the permission of the Marines. He didn't know beforehand what was going to happen when they went into that armory mosque. He happened to have his camera on the Marine who shot the guy. What was he then supposed to do, erase the footage? Refuse to publish it? Turn it over to the Marines? (Even if he had turned it over to the Marines, who believes that it wouldn't ultimately have come out?)

The point is, the situation is not wholly his fault–which is not to condone the frenzy that the Arab media and the rest are trying to whip up. From what I've read and heard reported, the Marine who fired the shot had every reason to be suspicious of guys pretending to be hurt or dead. I probably would have shot the guy, too. We've already got more prisoners than we need in this terror war.