On CNN, Wolf Blitzer turned to a CNN expert correspondent, "veteran Secretary of Defense" William Cohen (from the Clinton Administration), urging calm and self-retrospection in the face of this good news, since after all, "this may seem like a day of celebration", but "we should remember that a week ago, there was coverage of Iraqis dragging U.S. soldiers through the streets."
CNN quickly returned to its non-biased coverage of Saddam Hussein's capture, featuring commentary on assertions that the Bush Administration needs to make sure its response to this event is toned-down enough so as not to come across as "arrogant". The CNN segment continued to remind viewers that "we are acting on behalf of Iraqis", and that if the Bush Administration takes too much pleasure in the capture of Saddam, it might leave the impression that the administration "has its own interests in mind".
CNN Video "Fit To Kill"
CNN Presents: Fit To Kill
Aired October 26, 2003 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fire!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The body's still twitching. You could still see the body kind of rising and falling a little bit.
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN NEWS: The stories are hard to tell.
CROWLEY: The memories are hard to live with.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After we killed him, there was a question of was this guy a hostile person.
CROWLEY: The battles don't end when the shooting stops.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cease fire!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cease fire!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Killing another human being is a pretty goddamned significant act. And there's a lot of feelings about it afterwards.
CHARLES MILES-SHEEHAN, GULF WAR VETERAN: It's something that we spend way too little time reflecting on before we send troops into battle.
AARON BROWN, HOST, CNN PRESENTS: Machine guns fire and shell explode, so many die. Numbers for the world to see.
But what we don't see, what we don't talk about honestly when it comes to war, is the actual act of killing. That is taboo -- a taboo that we break now. Welcome to CNN PRESENTS. I'm Aaron Brown.