OK, OK, easy there now. Yes, none of us openly advocates murder as if that were implied. The article does say: "Lt. Gen. John Mattis made the comments Tuesday at a San Diego forum on tactics in fighting the war on terror. Mattis, who has been known as "Mad Dog Mattis" to troops, is currently commanding general of the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in Quantico, Va.

His comments were criticized by some American Muslims, and the Marines' top commander said he had "counseled" Mattis. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he had not heard Mattis' remarks and refused to discuss them.

Seated at a long table next to other military commanders, Mattis told about 200 people at the San Diego Convention Center: "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up front with you, I like brawling."

Mattis added: "You go into Afghanistan, you've got guys who slapped women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

You can't say that those sentiments are totally unknown or foreign to any human being. The Germans thought they were doing "the right thing" by exterminating Jews. This general has more of an ethical ground to stand on. I am personally more on the side of "sanctity of human life" - even for the unmanly Iraqis who went around slapping their wives for not wearing veils. That's their sorry business.

But from our end - we spent millions training these generals and supplied them with all sorts of killing machines, artilery, aircraft, bombs, - and now? Do we mean to say they shouldn't use all the goodies they were given in order to kill the enemy? Hell no. They should kill as many of the enemy as possible. A verbal faux pas is not something that these generals are schooled at. If they were schooled as politicians they would have given us some sort of a hogwash story how heartbreaking it was to kill an Iraqi unit that set their convoy with road blasts. Sorry, but I just don't buy it. Rush to judgment has traditionally been easy for all of us and moralizing has never won a war. OK, he was a little too open or clumsy but he's not paid to be a speaker, his job was to command a unit in combat. If he's ever judged for anything that should be the scope of our interests.

It is unacceptable to train these men to kill and later hold them liable for having killed (who cares if they enjoyed it or not). Such similar stupidities have befallen some other great American generals like William Tecumseh Sherman, George S Patton Jr. and Dwight D. Eisenhower. During their tenure they were severly criticized but after a few decades have elapsed we glorified their exploits. Let's not be that hasty and that hypocritical.