Officials Stating the Bleeding Obvious Part 3...

...or reigning in the monsters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top Marine Corps general flew to Iraq on Thursday to tell his troops they should kill "only when justified," as the U.S. military investigated whether Marines killed civilians in two incidents.

It is a sad reflection on a modern civilsation when a general must fly in to Iraq to tell his troops how not to kill civilians indiscriminately. The point here is that the American soldiers in Iraq have become part of the problem for the Iraqi people and not the solution. The way they are being deployed by the American government is making them no better than Zarqawi or the Badr militia. No more than a killing machine to justify its own presence. And no amount of lecturing by top generals is going to change that. What is needed is a clear policy by the top politicians. But all they are giving is instructions to stay as long as possible and hope conditions get better. It wont.