Iraq Militants Claim Marine Beheading from Yahoo News / AP

"We would like to inform you that the Marine of Lebanese descent has been killed, and you will soon see the movie with your own eyes," said the statement, signed in the name of the group's leader, Abu Abdullah al-Hassan bin Mahmoud.

The U.S. military in Baghdad said it was checking into the report of the 24-yer-old Hassoun's death but had no confirmation for the moment.

This is aimed at ruining the 4th of July. I hope, instead, that it focuses my fellow Marines on the task at hand at eradicating this disease of terrorism from the Earth.

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{Update}

Ace sums up how I feel pretty well

Our captured Marine has been beheaded.

Horrible, of course. But there is a silver lining: this behavior is not shocking nor terrorizing us anymore. We have become resigned to the fact that when one of our people is captured by these butchers, he's already a dead man walking. These murders, while vicious and painful, are really little different in terms of pain than a soldier killed by a roadside bomb. And yet the nation doesn't fly into panic over a single roadside-bomb murder, and they shouldn't cover these murders, either.

I hope no one reads that as indifference about these murders. I'm just stating that the terrorists are experiencing declining returns on their newest barbarities.