Soldiers in war do what soldiers do. React

Only those who have "seen the elephant" know the intense emotions one faces in combat. No matter what emotion one experiences in such an environment, the intensity is at times overwhelming. For someone who has never been there to make a judgment that switches the blame for this debacle onto the backs of the soldiers, is just wrong – dead wrong. Not one Soldier, Marine, Sailor or Airman has killed as many innocent people as this administration has.
What I fear is about to happen in this country is a return to the dynamics of the Vietnam era where a nation finds itself unwilling to confront a criminal government that it previously supported, when the frustration of an un-winnable war with its attendant casualties and atrocities begins to overwhelm the senses. Instead of directing its anger towards the criminals in government, the nation instead attacks its soldiers.
When you have stood and looked at the bloody mess that just a few minutes ago was your friend, then you can criticize. When you look into the eyes of locals who knew where an IED was concealed, after it has just taken the lives of your friends, and do not have an almost uncontrollable desire to kill them, then you can pass judgment on those who have. When you have looked into the eyes of a friend who has just had his body literally cut in half and listen to him beg you to kill him because he does not want to be half-a-man, then you can condemn.
The problem, as I see it, is this nation of cowards, who, rather than confront their own culpability in supporting a criminal government, seeks instead to find a scapegoat on whom to heap the blame, finding a convenient target in those who wear the uniform.
Damn this nation for lacking the courage to bring its real criminals to justice!

The Marines who are in Iraq did not start the hostilities but they are the ones who have to deal with the ramifications. I think the quotes above would give anyone who wants to immediately hang the troops a second to reconsider that it is not the troops who are the problem, it is this war and the way it is being fought. Pray for the troops! No one thought about what they would be up against when they were sent in, and no one in journalism thinks that they may be blameless.