[CCIP]

I don't think this is by any means 'natural' or worthy of excusing, but it is a good reminder that war is ugly business, even in the age of social media and our apparent civility. It'll never fail to bring out the worst in some people, because the very nature of war is hatred. While I agree that it's shameful and unbecoming, I think it's also rather facetious of the USMC to try and distance itself from it in terms of values and expectations. The very business of that and every other fighting force is to kill effectively, expediently and ruthlessly. Everything after that is secondary, and one would be deluded to think that most soldiers can do that sort of thing in cold blood and without genuine hatred and downright craziness boiling over every once in a while. What's more, most military services in fact encourage and train people in channeling that sort of hatred and craziness into 'productive' directions - but the fact is, once it gets to a certain point, you're not even really thinking.

So, it's very much the reality of the whole business, and it'll always be this way. This sort of exorcism of "bad apples" that we get in media every once in a while is no more than a deflection of attention from how ugly the war in general is.