Posted on 11/21/2004 10:14:30 PM PST by Pikamax
Your "barf alert" leaves me wondering if you actually read what he wrote. The man strikes me as plainspoken and honest. Killing the messenger accomplishes nothing.
The Marine is alive and the insurgent blinked at the wrong time. We need to support this young marine and insure that the public stays on his side.
When the insurgent took up arms he ran the risk of death..even in the act of surrender.
The fact that the marine did not kill any other of the wounded proves that this one was a perceived threat.
And that is all it takes in a war zone to be dead.
That is correct, your responsibility is to give it to the military and let them handle it, not give unedited video to Al Jazerra!
This matter should be investigated by the USMC and let them decide.
Sounds like Sites was doing his gig and no more.
They are fighting terrorists. Terrorists are not protected by the Geneva Convention.
I'll give him one thing. The messenger had no trouble finding 'Garcia.' Found Al Jazeera straightaway.
It seems to me the barf tag was warranted. Sites felt heartsick that the terrorist was killed but he had no problem with the five Marines that were killed nor with the Marine that was wounded in the face.
Couldn't disagree with you two more. Go back and read his (Sites) account of his "feelings" as he was filming this. He obviously has an agenda and it ain't pro USMC. If I were him I'd think twice before going out with some grunts again. He just might find himself alone where it isn't healthy to be.
The key word here is "supposedly". This incident was reported. Why is he calling it "supposedly"? He was right there - doesn't he know?
***I offered to hold the tape until they had time to look into incident and begin an investigation***
What happened to the offer? How long was the offer for when it was broadcast by his network within 48 hours? Did our military refuse the offer?
Sites is feeling the heat that he did not expect. That is the reason for this "letter" - that's all.
This is no more than after the fact rationalization.
The facts are: Kevin Sites gave the enemy a victory he could not win on the battlefield. He did more harm to our forces than thousands of barbarians in Fallujah were able to do.
The enemy created a situation where every wounded person is a threat. The rational response is to err on the side of caution. If, repeat IF, it turns out that this particular dead Iraqi posed no threat, it does not change the FACT that caution was necessary. Kevin Sites knew that. And he knew that what he did was going to harm the United States.
No amount of rationalization can undo the damage Kevin Sites has done. To those to whom it was not already obvious, his true colors are revealed by the fact that he has shown not the slightest remorse for the results of his action. The man deserves all the scorn and shame the United States can pour on him, and worse.
Kevin Sites has seen the barbaric enemy, and has chosen to side with that barbarian. He is a disgusting human being.
Quote from Marcus Tullius Cicero,
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear."
He did not pose the same apparent "danger" as the other men because he had his hands up in the international sign of surrender. The others did not.
OK, Mr. Sites so just where is THIS tape? He clearly says he talked to you and you filmed him. Where is it? What are you hiding?
kevin@kevinsites.com
Congrats dude. You accomplished what most 'war correspondants' can only dream of. You're famous. You're bigger than the story. You scored an enormous scoop, and I imagine it will net you speaking engagements, cherry assignments, hell probably even a book deal. And you're a hero to all the Dems who are still smarting from Kerry's loss and are looking for anything to bring Bush and "his" war down a notch or 2.
Of course the down-side is, you lowered morale, probably helped recruit thousands of Iraqis to the insurgency and subsequently cost dozens, if not hundreds of American lives and also contribute to the drip drip drip of MSM hits on the war that will, in time, eventually make the US public call for a withdrawal from Iraq, mission accomplished or no.
I read your apologia/explanation. I'll be blunt. That's a bunch of fucking bullshit. You're experienced enough to know what the effect of what you write will be. I think you were pissing your pants with glee over the fact you had a scoop. Anything 'anti-war' sells and your bosses at NBC must have been stoked as well. You'd have to be an idiot not to see how it would play. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that you aren't an idiot.
What you might not have expected is the backlash. Your sanctimonious and disingenious defense shows how your little feelings have been hurt. But noone cussing or flaming you will get anyone killed. Your story will. Good job, congrats, and good luck with the book deal. I hope you can sleep at night.
-dw
Send reporters forward to check dead and wounded terrorists for grenades and explosives from now on.
Good idea.
But personally, I prefer to trade him to the bad guys in exchange for one of their hostages. Then he can go on TV and condemn the U.S., the Marines, etc., in front of a world wide audience. Then at least he'll die happy when the peaceful Muslims cut off his head.
We hear gunshots from what seems to be coming from inside the mosque. A Marine from my squad yells, "Are there Marines in here?"When we arrive at the front entrance, we see that another squad has already entered before us. [Was this where the firing was coming from?]
For a moment, I'm paralyzed still taping with the old man in the foreground. I get up after a beat and tell the Marines again, what I had told the lieutenant -- that this man -- all of these wounded men -- were the same ones from yesterday. That they had been disarmed treated and left here.
At that point the Marine who fired the shot became aware that I was in the room[Did this Marine have situational awareness problems? He hadn't been aware of the camerman? Doesn't ring true]. He came up to me and said, "I didn't know sir-I didn't know." The anger that seemed present just moments before turned to fear and dread. [WHAT didn't he know???]
FGS
The soldier believed he was faking being dead. You don't need to fake being dead to surrender. Therefore the soldier thought the enemy wasn't surrendering and that makes him a threat.
End of investigation.
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