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talkpoliticsThis came up on my friend's page this morning.
followed by this .
When Rupert Hamer, the British journalist who served as the Sunday Mirror's war correspondent, was embedded with US forces in Afghanistan and was killed when an IED took out the MRAP he was traveling in, nobody seemed to give much of a shit. No general outcry, no "Those murderers!", no wailing and gnashing of teeth from blogs as different as Balko and BoingBoing.
But when a Reuters journalist is embedded with insurgents in Iraq who are approaching US armored vehicles while armed with weapons specifically designed to destroy such vehicles, and is engaged and killed in their company by a gunship crew who follows rules of engagement and directly asks for permission first, a whole bunch of people just about wet themselves in their eagerness to decry those who killed him.
Why is this?
-"Phanatic"
I have my own take behind the cut but I'm curious about what others have to say.
There is no discernible difference in my eyes, both were killed in action.
The responses to this incident reminds me of the Joker's monologue from "Dark Knight".
Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, it's all "part of the plan"...
...But if one of our Soldiers "The Good Guys", blows up a journalist everyone loses their freaking minds.
An american helicopter crew spotted a group of men gathering near an american convoy.
Weapons are clearly visible, 2 RPGs and a Light Machine-Gun. The standard AQ fire-team everywhere from Afghanistan to Chechnya for the last 15-20 years. Since the insurgents don't wear uniforms this armament and organization is the single best identifier.
They reported the situation and waited for permission to engage.
The enemy was defeated. Additional Insurgents attempted to extract the wounded before they could be captured but in doing so exposed themselves to American forces and were defeated as well.
This is war.
Support it, or oppose it, I won't judge.
All I ask is that you be intellectually honest about it.
Disclamer:
I am an Iraq War vet, and a helicopter crewman to boot, so this story hits a little close-to-home for me.
Edit:
In the interests of "citing sources" here is CENTCOM's official report on the incident.
followed by this .
When Rupert Hamer, the British journalist who served as the Sunday Mirror's war correspondent, was embedded with US forces in Afghanistan and was killed when an IED took out the MRAP he was traveling in, nobody seemed to give much of a shit. No general outcry, no "Those murderers!", no wailing and gnashing of teeth from blogs as different as Balko and BoingBoing.
But when a Reuters journalist is embedded with insurgents in Iraq who are approaching US armored vehicles while armed with weapons specifically designed to destroy such vehicles, and is engaged and killed in their company by a gunship crew who follows rules of engagement and directly asks for permission first, a whole bunch of people just about wet themselves in their eagerness to decry those who killed him.
Why is this?
-"Phanatic"
I have my own take behind the cut but I'm curious about what others have to say.
There is no discernible difference in my eyes, both were killed in action.
The responses to this incident reminds me of the Joker's monologue from "Dark Knight".
Nobody panics when things go "according to plan." Even if the plan is horrifying! If, tomorrow, I tell the press that a gang banger will get shot, or a truckload of soldiers will be blown up, nobody panics, it's all "part of the plan"...
...But if one of our Soldiers "The Good Guys", blows up a journalist everyone loses their freaking minds.
An american helicopter crew spotted a group of men gathering near an american convoy.
Weapons are clearly visible, 2 RPGs and a Light Machine-Gun. The standard AQ fire-team everywhere from Afghanistan to Chechnya for the last 15-20 years. Since the insurgents don't wear uniforms this armament and organization is the single best identifier.
They reported the situation and waited for permission to engage.
The enemy was defeated. Additional Insurgents attempted to extract the wounded before they could be captured but in doing so exposed themselves to American forces and were defeated as well.
This is war.
Support it, or oppose it, I won't judge.
All I ask is that you be intellectually honest about it.
Disclamer:
I am an Iraq War vet, and a helicopter crewman to boot, so this story hits a little close-to-home for me.
Edit:
In the interests of "citing sources" here is CENTCOM's official report on the incident.
(no subject)
Date: 10/4/10 22:54 (UTC)srs dude maybe if you don't want to look like a crazy moron maybe you shouldn't link to conspiracy-theory videos created by racist websites as some kind of awesome master burn. While I'm sure their superior white intellects extend to incredible abilities in the field of amateur stillframe analysis of eight fuzzy gray pixels their idea that no non-terrorist reporter would ever photograph soldiers in a warzone is a lil' bit shaky, y'know? Gonna, like, need a bit of citation, maybe you can find something on Stormfront to back that up for me.
(no subject)
Date: 10/4/10 22:58 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 11/4/10 01:26 (UTC)While I can't recall a solitary atrocity in Iraq that's happened without the first military investigative report automatically clearing everyone involved of all wrongdoing for what later wound up being made-up reasons, I agree that when your basic mode of warfare is vaporizing people practically from orbit you're going to have a lot of trouble identifying targets correctly. Where we differ seems to be that you think that means we should make it okay to kill reporters and innocent people, where I think that means maybe they shouldn't be vaporizing people from halfway in orbit if they can't do it properly. The guys directly involved in this don't particularly need to get strung up on the gibbet or whatever the hell, the whole feigned shock everyone's playing at that hired killers actually enjoy their jobs is just surreal; and apparently even lighting up an ambulance is now business as usual for gun crews over there now, but people absolutely should be pushing for correction of the policies and regulations that make shit like this possible.
(no subject)
Date: 11/4/10 02:10 (UTC)Did you see an ambulance somewhere in the video?
Watch your own tapes.
Date: 11/4/10 02:21 (UTC)It can be the no-go reason for the ambulance to come.
Re: Watch your own tapes.
Date: 11/4/10 02:37 (UTC)That was my point.
Date: 11/4/10 09:46 (UTC)