UK News Station shows War Crime in Fallujah???

I found this post in the "Have your say" part of the BBC News website.

Yesterday I watched TV pictures of an American "executing" an injured insurgent rather than capturing him. I know war is a dirty business, but my surprise is over the fact that as I have searched the internet for some kind of reaction to this, I can't find a single word about it. Have summary executions by allied forces become so banal that they now pass without comment? I can only contrast it with the endless enquiries and shoot-to-kill allegations that we have had here in Northern Ireland and wonder what we are becoming.

I watched this too.

Basically what happened was a group of Marines were in what appeared to be someones back yard. One of the Marines said that there was a wounded Insurgent inside the building in front of them. Another of the Marines then approached the building and peered through an opening. He then raised his weapon to the opening and fired one shot, turned and said to the others �He�s gone�.

The reporter then commented that the Marine had apparently killed the injured man. It was apparent that he did indeed shoot the injured man.

Is this a War crime?

I presume the official response would involve the phrase �illegal enemy combatant� but as the man in the BBC post says is this now ordinary behavior for Coalition troops?

bob, I saw the same footage of the Marine who shot the person in question through a window.
The words i heard were, "he's done. Let's go."
I guess one had to be there. I'm sure it was a 'take no prisoners' situation. The Marines were in a
heavy fire area. War is hell.

Sanc'.

My Dad was in WW2 and fought in many battles, i remember he told me im many battles things like this went on ALL the time. He saw US, Canadian, UK, German and italian troops do far worse.

War isnt a clean cut thing, people living in our cosy living rooms watching CNN and eating Big Macs have no idea just how messy war is.

If that man in that building died, i can gaurentee there will be dozens more like him.

Yeah i saw the same on C4 news the other day on my break. Rule of thumb, if a guys just tried to kill you, is wounded, but still has a gun... you make sure he can't shoot that gun at you again.

If he didn't want to die he shouldn't have been fighting now should he? Or did the gun just magically appear in his hand

Yeh mate agreed war is hell but this aint Stalingrad. Un-restricted warfare should be consigned to history. I was under the impression that now that it is "mission acomplished" (ha) we were there on a peacekeeping mission. I know things have turned to s*** but this whole Fallujah episode is not winning hearts and minds but maybe we are beyond that now. If we are beyond H&Ms then what exactly are we doing. Trying to prove a point????

I don't think its trying to make a point. Nor can we armchair generals really comment on the combat experience unless we have been there. As Sanc put its a war and the Marines were under heavy fire. In war there is nothing fair about it. That militant would not have hesatate to take a few Marines with him to the promised land if they got careless.

Dont get me wrong I was n't passing judgment on the guy that did this. As the guy in the BBC post said this had passed through most of the media with out major comment though I would have thought they would have had a field day if they had footage of russian soldiers in chechnya killing an injured chechen rebal.(more so b4 beslan atrocity).

This is pretty common in war.

Depending on the injuries, he may have spared the enemy a long draw out death with no medical assistance.