Excessive Force

HARRY CONDE HAD HAD ENOUGH. WHEN A 13-YEAR-old reached into the Marine gunnery sergeant's humvee on a busy Mogadishu street and snatched the prescription sunglasses from his face last February, the 33-year-old native of Puerto Rico wheeled and shot the boy in the stomach, also wounding a bystander. He claimed self-defense, arguing that the constant threat of attack from brazen youths in the lawless Somali capital had unnerved him. A court-martial found Conde guilty of aggravated assault, stripped him of his rank and imposed a $1,706 fine. Twelve thousand U.S. servicemen remain in Somalia, though Joint Chiefs Chairman Colin Powell, who...