There is a difference between what happens in and around a firefight and the disposition of prisoners who are taken to the "rear". My point is that as long as these soldiers felt immediately threatened, this guy was fair game. This is a fine grey line, of course, but I defy anyone who has not been there, done that, to tell me this guy was any more "hapless" than the VC who killed himself along with our medic.

All this changes, of course, once your prisoners are moved to the "rear" or wherever they go when there is no "rear". Abu Ghraib and Gitmo are real stains on this nation. They were avoidable too had the Bush administration not decided it wanted to have its cake and eat it too.