Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Soldier Shooting Wounded Man

Sorry, too tired to find links.
My feelings on this issue.
I don't necessarily think that the soldier behaved wrongly. He may have had a justified fear that the man was booby-trapped. However, I am hesitant to say that the man was an insurgent until I know more about the situation.
Perhaps the stories about this mention reasons why we can be certain that the man was an insurgent. But I suspect that some of the talk-show hosts who call him a jihadi, or a terrorist, are simply labeling anyone who happens to be killed by our side a terrorist, because no innocent civilians could ever get victimized by "liberation," could they?

As for the embedded soldier taking the picture, I think that it is better that we see this and get it out of the way. Sooner or later, things like this are bound to come to light, and if the shooting was justified, let's not make it look shady with a cover-up (I'm not saying that thsi is what the military is doing, I'm saying that some of the war-bots want the military to do this).
In fact, the very fact that people want this to be swept under the rug would indicate that they think it is something to be ashamed of, or that they don't trust the American people to handle the brutal facts of war.
Of course, some may be concerned that Al Jazeera is using this tape to turn people against us. I don't really think that hiding footage like this is going to increase our popularity in the Arab world, primarily because if it comes out (as it will) that certain things have been censored, that will in the end turn more people against us than dealing with it will.

No comments: