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As long as this is one ex-marine saying these things, and as long as this is only a couple of highlighted incidents, I tend to believe the US army isn't as bad as is claimed.
Firstly, the US marine isn't an ex-marine for nothing. Why did he quit? What did he see? What is his motivation for speaking out? could he be lying, or is he automatically assumed to tell the full truth?
Secondly, a couple of unfortunate incidents (warranted or not) do not mean this is common practice in Iraq, no matter what this guy says. Not even international human rights groups go as far as this in their claims. Besides, what happened to the people involved? Were the responsible marines punished?
Now, even though I believe there are some bad things going on in Iraq, I have to point out that it's still a warzone, and in such circumstances (especially with insurgants dressed like civilians) innocent people die. If the choice is between soldiers getting killed, or innocent civilians getting killed, the soldier *has* to choose to save his live. Pretending that the soldier can take a chance is just naive.
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