Commentaries appear at regular intervals. If you would like an invited commentary for your publication, please let me know!

The current controversy over a shooting in Fallujah demonstrates the ability of the MSM to miss the forest for the trees.

Unless you've been in combat, it is impossible to judge what the troops pictures were going through. Indeed, we have only a short snippet of their entire weeks-long campaign in Fallujah. We do know, for example, that the terrorists used deception to kill our troops, including "playing dead" and using the bodies of the dead as booby-traps.

What we do not know is the full story behind why those bodies were in that building, what contact they had with allied troops before that, or why the Marines were called upon to sweep the building for combatants, apparently for the second time in as many days.

The MSM has rushed to call the person shot a "prisoner". However, we do not know whether this person had indeed surrendered to allied forces. Bodies lying in a room are not likely to be prisoners, whether regular army or illegal combatants. We are not sure whether these bodies were found earlier, whether they were treated by allied forces for their injuries, and if so, why they were left unattended overnight.

This is a situation where the military judicial process needs to be allowed to run its course. Any outside observation by people who were not on the scene, much less by civilians unfamiliar with the conduct of war, is worse than idle speculation. Our enemies are of course using this 15 seconds of video as proof that Americans are barbaric war criminals. It is getting hard to tell the difference between Al Jazeera and the American MSM on that point.

Out of the thousands of hours of combat footage and all the tales of horror committed by the terrorists that we have uncovered in Fallujah the MSM has decided that this 15 seconds is indicative of allied combat operations over the past couple of weeks and the most important view of Iraq at present.

Ironically, as the MSM replayed this event over and over again word leaked out that one of the female hostages being held by the terrorists had been executed. Video of a terrorist shooting her in the head had surfaced. Isn't it telling that the MSM chooses to air the video of a Marine shooting terrorists in order to impugn the U.S. military while refusing to air video of a hostage being executed in cold blood by the terrorists who are the alleged "victims" of U.S. aggression?

At this point, the MSM is the best weapon the terrorists have. Smarter organizations would have initiated a sanity check by now.

What we do not know is the full story.

8GB iPhone

The MSM has decided that this 15 seconds is indicative of allied combat operations.

The MSM chooses to air the video of a Marine shooting terrorists in order to impugn the U.S. military while refusing to air video of a hostage being executed in cold blood.

Smarter organizations would have initiated a sanity check by now.