a delicious episode near the fall of the Hussein statue. As [US Marine] Kuhlman was saving the day by replacing an American flag over the falling monument with a vintage Iraqi flag, Iraqis greeted the Marines as liberators, complete with offerings of flowers.
The only sour note of the day came from the so-called “human shields,” leftists who had gone to Iraq supposedly to protect the people from the U.S. military and leave them safe in the arms of Saddam Hussein’s secret police. They stormed out of their shelters and began cursing the Marines as “baby killers.”
A group of “surly” Iraqi men approached [Marine Gunnery Sgt.] Coughlin and offered to beat the liberal protesters to death for their insults. In the ultimate act of irony, he explained to the gathered Iraqis that democracy would mean having to let such people blather from now on as he physically imposed himself between the leftist activists and their supposed beneficiaries.
Apparently Coughlin was smart enough to not waste his time with explanations to people too stupid to understand.