My 2 Cents: Viewers' Reactions To Marine Video Were Generational

Usually I'm pretty good at gauging the reaction to my commentaries, but the more I thought about it the more I was taken aback by the response to My 2 Cents on the four Marines desecrating the Taliban bodies.

I was heartsick when I saw this video of the Marines urinating on the dead. Literally I had to turn away from it, knowing that doesn't represent the United States or the United States Marines.

What surprised me was a great deal of the varied reaction to the incident seemed to be generational, and it was revealing to me.

Many of the responses emailed to me, and the responses I got when I conducted a small survey in person, indicated younger people at least "understood" why the Marines did it.

Then it dawned on me, they're the 911 generation. Teenagers and 20-something's who've grown up in the shadow of terrorism and surprise attacks.

This is their war more than those of us who are middle-aged.

They're friends and peers are fighting and dying in the Middle East, they deeply relate to the fear and the anger and the carnage our young people in uniform are confront every day.