[lickmyballssuckmy]

ok.. I still see no indication that they left on this mission without an established ROE. Here's how I read those three paragraphs:

The defense attorneys said the rules of engagement -- which vary depending on the mission, level of danger and other factors -- are likely to become a central element of their cases because those rules guide how troops can use deadly force on the battlefield. One Marine official said such rules usually require positive identification of a target before shooting but noted that the rules are often circumstantial.
"Once you go back over it, you have to determine if they applied the rules," the Marine official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the Marine Corps does not discuss rules of engagement. "Did they feel threatened? Did they perceive hostile intent or hostile action?"

The Marine Corps, as an institution, doesn't discuss ROE for security reasons. The more the enemy knows about your tactics, the more exposed you are so it is not public information. The outcome of the case will be dependent on whether the ROE were followed.

The Marine who fired the rounds -- Puckett said it was not Wuterich -- had experience clearing numerous houses on a deployment in Fallujah, where Marines had aggressive rules of engagement.

The Marine that entered the room first had previous experience in an area with aggressive ROE.

"When I was in Iraq," Morgenstein said, "the Anbar-wide ROEs [rules of engagement] did not say we had the authority to knock down any door, throw in a hand grenade and kill everyone." Still, he said, if someone in a house in Haditha was shooting at them, the Marines' response may have been within procedure. "If they felt they took fire from that house, then that may be authorized."

Sentence one says one thing and the second sentence contradicts the first. He's talking to talk. The authority was either there or it wasn't and he doesn't know because he left country six months before the incident. If the ROE included that people can shoot at you from inside a house and you can't take action, then we have a problem.