Snapped

    Cnn.com reports that the marines at Haditha, Iraq "snapped"  which resulted in the massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians. There is an official investigation occuring, even though it is eight months later. Even though this investigation is garnering a lot of attention by the public and other politicians, I feel that the general attitude regarding the marine's actions there is forgiving and accepting of their actions.
    Rhetoric like "snapped" and "lost control" describe the actions of the marines on that day. A road side bomb went off and  one of their well liked commrades was killed. Apparently this set off something  in the heads of thse soliders and that led them to kill civilians. "Snapped" and "lost control" imply that these soliders had no control over these killings. I have to disagree. Even though these soliders are trained to kill, it still takes  thought and a committed action to fire a gun. In fact, fire it multiple times. It was found that some of the victims had been shot up to 9 times.I was not there when this occured, and I do not know the thoughts of the soliders involved. I cannot deny the fact that a solider decided to shoot someone.  However, the vernacular that the media and government is using seems to release the soliders from any fault. They just lost it. They couldn't control the guns that shot civilian men, women and children.
    I also must add that this kind of attitude expresses a kind of bias as well. We would never say that the terrorists of 9/11 just "lost it" after many of their commrades and community members were killed or hurt by Western forces. However, our soliders just couldn't control themselves that day. So for their lack of control, we have 24 Iraqis dead. Too bad we say and move on.
    Some would say we cannot hold soliders to that standard. "They are trained to kill", " they just point and shoot, they are brainwashed to do it." I would hope that statements like that scare the american public. We sit in our chairs watching the terror level rise to orange scared of those "over there" when we have men roaming about that are trained to kill? What makes us think that they can turn that off the minute they come home. The high rates of domestic violence at military bases say otherwise.
    Soliders do not just "lose it". Domestic violence batterers do not just "lose it". The kind of thinking reflected here shows amnesty when it maybe should not. The more horrible actions we just gloss over as incidents of insanity, the more we as a culture accept those kind of actions. While I appreciate the soliders long and difficult journey and their hardships they must still be held accountable for their actions. Murder is murder no matter what country you are in and what uniform you are wearing.