What we do know is that an embedded NBC correspondent filmed a U.S. Marine shooting an Iraqi man in a Fallujah mosque. We know that the Marine thought the Iraqi was playing dead, that he shot this man, and that a Marine then said "well, he's dead now." If a picture is worth a thousand words, NBC's Kevin Sites' video of this ordeal is worth a thousand questions.

Recently, a grainy image of a Marine aiming a rifle splashed across the Web, blogs, television and print, accompanied by a story citing the possibility of an American soldier shooting and killing an unarmed, wounded Iraqi. We're sure a fair deal of people around the world look at this image - or watch the video - and get what they think is a first-hand account of what allegedly happens every day in Iraq, or what happened daily in Vietnam more than 30 years ago. Others see a Marine defending himself from an enemy insurgent.

We weren't there. Odds are, neither were you. You don't know what happened. Then again, we don't either. The owner of the finger who pulled the trigger in Sites' video and the deceased owner of that trigger's eventual bullet are the only people who know for absolute certain. Which is exactly why we're urging you not to form conclusions about what really happened last weekend in Fallujah.

The Geneva Conventions clearly state that once a combatant is wounded and out of action, they mandate protection, even from the enemy. It isn't difficult to hypothesize about this incident in the context that the Bush administration isn't exactly chummy with the Geneva Convention, but it's also common knowledge that troops in battle face a brand of strain all their own. Due process will decide this ordeal, not a choppy image or censored video.

We'd all like to believe that the innocent or defenseless are spared in war, but it simply isn't reality. Before you believe in your version of this scenario, though, be sure to consult the reality of it.