Our reader Haider Ajina phoned his father in Baghdad for an update on Iraqi sentiment concerning the Marine killing. Haider sends us the following message:

I just got of the phone with my father in Baghdad. I asked him what is the reaction of the Marine killing the injured Iraqi in the Mosque in Felujah. His first words were "Good riddance."

People are not giving it a second thought. Any terrorist who attacks soldiers from Mosques has no sanctuary. Any terrorists who fake death to kill in a mosque deserve no mercy. He says Iraqis (including Sunnis) are fed up with the terrorists and want them eliminated.

There was much uproar about the brutal kidnapping killing of Mrs. Margaret Hassan. Iraqis are upset outraged and disgusted with her brutal abduction & killing. She helped us, helped the poor & needy and this what the terrorist do to her and her family.

He says we must stay strong, united and relentless in the pursuit of the terrorist. Baghdad had relative calm over the last few days. People are even going out in the street till 9:30pm now.

Please spread the message, let America Know that the Iraqis are with us, grateful and want us to stay strong and get stronger so that we can all defeat terrorism.

Haider also writes:

The Iraqi Arabic newspaper "Azaman" reported the following in its Nov. 19th issue: "Israel & Six Arab countries join to fight terrorism." The English translation is as follows:

"NATO announced that it will perform anti terrorist Naval maneuvers in the Mediterranean. These maneuvers will be in partnership with the navies of Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Tunis, Algiers & Mauritania. These forces will train together to better hone their skills in fighting terrorist, drug smugglers and illegal immigration in the Mediterranean basin."

This looks like a step in the right direction. It seems we all have a common enemy now. This a sad but best way to bring people together. We witnessed this in 9-11 right here at home.

UPDATE: To the message from Baghdad let us append this companion piece by Diana West: "Marine just doing his job." West writes:

What I'm getting at, in this land of free speech and home of brave Marines, is my unequivocal belief that Marine X committed no "war crimes" in that fortified Fallujah mosque last week where he shot and killed a prone and wounded terrorist. He was just doing his job — his hellishly dangerous job — and thank God for him...

Who, among the global millions who have watched NBC's videotaped-shooting, realize that a comrade of the Marine in question was killed by a booby-trapped corpse the day before? That same corpse-bomb wounded five others in the unit. And who, among those same millions, realize that even as Marine X, NBC's global anti-hero, was shooting the enemy he suspected was playing possum, just a block away, another explosive-rigged corpse was killing another young Marine?

In that split second of fear and indecision, our guy made the right call...