text: what do you think about the marines accused of killing innocent civilians? i don't know all that much about the situatuion, just this: -that a roadside bomb went off killing/wounding several marines in a convoy -remaining marines searched surrounding home killing up to 20 people -several were women and children  i don't know what to think, but my instinct is that these marines were only kids.  they're sending 19 yo's over there to do the dirty work, and now they're probably going to fry them because they were scared to death.  they have very little immediate contact with the insurgents, rather just get blown up because the insurgents are cowards who cannot fight like face to face like men.  this is just my opinion, and i hope they don't keep talking about this for years to come. its an accusation founded on iraqi eyewitness's and given the level of feeling in iraq towards the us then it might have been made up but we cannot discount the evidence yet.   its guerilla warfare of the worst kind in iraq when you don't know who exactly is your enemy but you can see them and their supporters all around you. it must be extremely frustrating for soldiers serving there and yes like you say fear, stress and frustration could all have been a cause.  those marines even if they were veterans of combat, would have felt scared and angry especially if their freinds had been blown up in front of them by a roadside bomb. if they did do it then it was a crippling loss of control and disipline on their part that as soldiers trained to deal with it shouldn't have happend. they will be punished according to army law which is there to deal with situations like that. the press shouldn't pass judgement on them before a trial has been properly concluded.  the insurgents were doing what anyone fighting against a foreign army would so we can hardly accuse them of cowardice. they see the us as occupying their country we wouldn't accuse the french resistance of cowardice in ww2 would we when their tactics have been replicated in so many wars since then.   those us marines will be going through hell even if they did do it. if they did and if then they should be punished but if they didn't the world owes them an apology for an unfounded accusation and judgement.   we cannot judge someone without all the facts.