The situation in Fallujah shown all over television yesterday has happened many times in the past. A Marine kills a wounded opponent. This time, an NBC cameraman captures it on tape.
The problem with the video is that there is no context to judge it by except for some voice-over. I’ve seen it before, and used it in teaching classes. It is almost identical to the situation discussed on this series. Mike Wallace and Peter Jennings are panelists. Jennings says he wouldn’t air it. Wallace says he would.
I won’t even think to judge the Marine–others will do so quickly. But this is nothing like the Abu Ghraib situation. Those soldiers were rear echelon jailers who got bored and did stupid things. This is an area where bodies are booby-trapped, wounded enemy rise up to spray the area with AK-47 fire, or blow themselves up. Your life depends on your situational awareness, and that of your squad mates. The sound track indicates nobody is shocked about the incident. Adrenalin is running high.
And for all the media folks who will spend hours wringing their hands about this, I would remind you this is precisely what you applauded John Kerry for–shooting a wounded enemy.
You beat NewsMax to the punchline by a couple of hours. Well done.
Comment by Sarah — November 16, 2004 @ 1:17 pm