The mainstream media's adversarial relationship with the American military continues (yesterday's observations here). A quick look at Google News' headlines from Fallujah. Reporting is, in a word, terrible. Relevant, objective information could fit into one paragraph, but many stories are sentence after sentence of dirges. Most authors are attempting to blame the necessity of the battle on Allied forces; and most omit any reference to the horrific conditions that existed while the city remained in the hands of terrorists. Biased journalists' favorite technique of statement/contradiction is in full play; the military's emphatic differentiation of "occupy" from "secure" has been largely ignored.

Some press agencies are currently probing, for damage potential, an incident in Fallujah where a Marine shot a terrorist in a mosque who was either dead, wounded or, as the Marine believed, playing possum to continue trying to kill Allied troops. I have seen a video of the circumstance, minus the moment when the Marine fired his rifle. I will leave legality to the professionals, but common sense prevails here: two Marine units had taken fire from a mosque (itself a violation of the conduct of war, just one of the myriad violations committed by terrorists, around whom mainstream media outlets are ironically trying to wrap the Geneva Convention). Since the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom in March 2003, our various enemies have been known to fake surrenders or incapacitation and kill American soldiers who close in to take them into custody. Terrorists laced with explosives, waiting to kill the first American or Iraqi who comes near, have also been reported (Hat tip, Alec Rawls). The terrorist was lying on the floor of the building. If alive, was he making no effort to show no hostile intent because he was unable to do so — or unwilling to do so? Knowing that Allied troops had been attacked from this previously cleared location, the Marine concluded the latter; in any event, saving American and Allied lives. As a caller on Bill Bennett's program asked rhetorically this morning, "If the Marine [next to a potential threat] were your son, what would you have him do?"