Postmodernism in daily life

Maybe there's no such thing as objective truth, after all. AP for May 4 brings the news:

A Marine corporal who was videotaped shooting an apparently injured and unarmed Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque last year will not face a court-martial, the Marine Corps announced Wednesday.

A review of the evidence showed the Marine's actions were "consistent with the established rules of engagement and the law of armed conflict," Maj. Gen. Richard F. Natonski, commanding general of the 1st Marine Division, said in a statement. ...

In the video, as the cameraman moved into the mosque, a Marine in the background could be heard shouting obscenities and yelling that one of the men was only pretending to be dead. The Marine then raised his rifle toward an Iraqi lying on the floor of the mosque and shot him.

"Although the Marines said it was unclear from the video whether the Iraqi made any overtly threatening gestures," the corporal successfully claimed self-defense.

The thing that really got to me about this was the "rules of engagement."

Before the opening of the Nov. 8 assault on rebel-held Fallujah, Marine commanders told infantrymen that the rules of engagement allowed the use of deadly force against men of military age deemed holding hostile intent, even if the enemy didn't fire on the Marines first.

Now, in one sense I suppose I can understand soldiers being told that in combat you don't have to wait to actually be shot at. But consider what they're actually being told, especially in the light of the acquittal. It means that any Iraqi male, except for the very young and the elderly, who any US soldier thinks is "holding hostile intent" - even if they make no "threatening gestures" - can be shot down with impunity.

I wonder if this is part of what Dean had in mind when he hoped Bush would be "incredibly successful."