Frontline embedded with Kilo Company this past summer in an effort to get to know guys doing the fighting, to intuit what it’s like to find oneself wading through oppressive heat, bullets flying, bombs exploding, friends lying dead or wounded, unsure who’s civilian or insurgent, and faced with a lightning choice: to engage or not to engage. Whether the Haditha Marines will be convicted of the deliberate massacre of innocents will be decided this spring. In the meantime, the lessons of Frontline’s report couldn’t be more disheartening. As one Marine says, in the heat of combat one may find oneself to be “judge and juror in a split-second.” And, sometimes, executioner.
Related:
Playing war, Criminal intent, Theater of war, More 
- Playing war
“I don’t think there’s a soul who likes that place,” Dan Cook tells me about 29 Palms when I walk over to his Dorchester apartment. Slideshow: “An-My Le: Small Wars” at the Rhode Island School of Design
- Criminal intent
Ed Burns — former Baltimore homicide detective, Vietnam vet, and long-time writing partner with David Simon, both on the The Wire and on Generation Kill , spoke with the Phoenix about the new series.
- Theater of war
Saving Private Ryan reprised the glory days of GI Joes fighting nobly at Normandy, but it certainly didn’t spawn a comeback of World War II combat flicks.
- Pop goes to war
Next time you put on the new Spoon single to make that subway ride go by a little faster, consider what musical escapism means to troops in Iraq.
- In the land of the stoner cops
Major Jim Contreras was awaiting his marching orders. Literally.
- US Marine graffiti crew tags Hyde Park
This past week, the United States Marine Corps invaded Boston. Or, more accurately, they were invited into the community by Mayor Tom Menino to “showcase military equipment displays, perform community outreach projects, and honor local Marines during Marine Week Boston.”
- The wages of war
The Iraq War poses a strange problem for the American public.
- Protest
After the Winter Harbor Theatre Company's first two shows in a series of speaking out to power from the proscenium, the WHTC is back with Letters to Baghdad .
- Crossword: 'You've been caught'
Be careful out there
- Major embarrassment?
Matt Sanchez was a darling of the conservative media establishment, but then news broke that he was, only a few years ago, performing in famous gay porn films.
- Master of war
This article originally appeared in the June 26, 1987 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
- Less
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Television
, Armed Forces, War and Conflict, U.S. Armed Forces Activities, More
, Armed Forces, War and Conflict, U.S. Armed Forces Activities, U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Marines Activities, Iraq War, John Murtha, Less
