Did a squad of U.S. Marines kill 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha? The charge is among the most serious that can be leveled in a time of war. Just war principles require that combatants protect non-combatants in so far as this is possible. The principle of discrimination holds that civilians are to be protected — even if this means additional risk to combatants.

Philip Marchand argues that the generation born between between the G.I. Generation and the Baby Boomers set the stage for the rebellions of the 1960s and the great social transformations of the 1970s. Writing in The Toronto Sun, Marchand argues that the “In-Between Generation” — born in the 1930s and early 1940s — prepared the way for the Baby Boomers:

No one will agree with everything Professor Bruce Kuklick of the University of Pennsylvania argues in this opinion piece published Sunday in The Los Angeles Times, but it demands to be read anyway. In “Bright and Wrong,” he argues that intellectuals often follow ideologies and fads rather than common sense — especially when it comes to advising U.S. presidents on foreign policy.

Jane Jacobs, the most influential critic of urban planning of our times, died April 25 in Toronto. Her most notable book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, written in 1961, changed the debate over cities in America — even if many of her ideas were rejected by political leaders.

The Guardian [London] is one of the most liberal of Britain’s major daily newspapers, and it is often one of the most interesting. On Good Friday, the paper unleashed an attack upon orthodox believers that breaks new ground in secular intolerance disguised as tolerance.

Abdul Rahman, the Afghan man on trial for converting to Christianity, still faces the prospect of being executed for his faith if convicted by the Afghan court. [See extensive coverage below.]

Media reports indicate that the trial of an Afghan man charged with converting to Christianity may be diverted by a judicial finding that the man, Abdul Rahman, is insane. The trial judge hinted at this development in recent days, and building international pressure is raising new questions about the trial of a man who converted to Christianity 16 years ago — a “crime” that could cost Mr. Rahman his life, if convicted [see previous articles here and here].

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently spoke at the New England School of Law. As expected he was ready with a raft of quotable quotes, all pointing to the crisis of the American judiciary — which is a crisis of constitutional government.