Don't Fault Marine

It's hard for me to find fault with this Marine. Try to imagine what he has been through in the days leading up to this moment. He is tired from a lack of sleep and an adrenaline rush that hasn't ceased in days. He's tired from the amount of weight he is carrying on his weary shoulders, the same weight that offers him protection from a bullet or shrapnel that would otherwise pierce his flesh with rapid fluidity. The same weight that offers him the tools of his trade, that of a warrior. He is hungry, even if he can't feel it, his body is feeding upon itself. He is scared, even though he won't admit it. His fear doesn't break him, he channels it and it strengthens him. It makes him a more lethal warrior because he is more alert and therefore more decisive. This fear also slowly drains his energy. He is pissed, more so than you can imagine. He is pissed because he has been repeatedly shot at, and he has seen his fellow Marines killed or wounded. In the back of his mind he thinks about the Marine from his unit that was killed the day before. He knows that the enemy doesn't play by the rules of war. The rules that only apply to us. He knows and has felt the fire raging around him, that fire originating from a place that is supposed to be a holy place, but one in which the enemy has made his fortress. This mosque and the people that inhabit it is one of the most dangerous places in the world. He and his brothers know this as they enter. They find bodies, some dead, some alive. They find the tools in which these vicious killers, that have no rules, have used against their fellow Marines. He knows that some of the enemy have played dead only to become the killer that he always was. The same ones that disappear around a corner waving a white flag or wearing civilian clothes, only to emerge from the other side as a killer. He knows all of this and he sees one of the bodies move, his mind is suddenly flooded with the horrors he has scene, the stories of deception he has heard. He thinks of home, his youth, his family, his fellow Marines, his survival. His body reacts and he does the one thing many of us would do in that same situation, he eliminates the threat and lives to fight another fight. He's fighting for you.
This is not the same as the prison scandal, this is war.