Posted on 11/17/2004 3:54:24 AM PST by notkerry
A WOUNDED US soldier seen on TV shooting dead an Iraqi prisoner was defended last night by SAS hero Andy McNab.
The US marine — shot in the cheek earlier — machine-gunned the man in the head as he lay bleeding in a mosque in Fallujah.
The soldier feared the Iraqi was pretending to be dead to draw him into a trap.
Just before the killing, a fellow GI yells: “He’s f***ing faking he’s dead!”
Walking away ... victim is obscured by fellow captive after burst of gunfire
The marine faces a murder probe.
But McNab — who has stared death in the face — said: “It’s easy for people sitting comfortably in their armchairs in front of the TV to take the moral high ground.
“They are not there in Fallujah, in that killing environment.
“We don’t know what is going through that marine’s head. The Iraqi could have been hiding a weapon or explosives.
Grisly ... the shot prisoner - on the left - lies dead in Fallujah mosque
“Troops are fighting an enemy that doesn’t stick to any rules.
“The insurgents use mosques to launch attacks. They come out under cover of a white flag, then attack the Americans. They plant booby-trap bombs on dead bodies.
“Every soldier has a right to defend himself, and if that is a grey area — then so be it.”
Supposedly other jihadis raised their hands and were not shot. Somehow this jihadi's behavior was sufficiently devious to raise doubts.
Too bad, so sad.
As for the reporters, their tape should be kept under military custody until the battle is over. This isn't
Iron Chef, people don't need to see the sausage being
made.
When in doubt, take them out.
I am so grateful to God that we have had so few casualties!
So, blame Bush, hah. This is pretty much the jist of the post.
You are kidding right?
What this guy should have done with his 'hot scoop' was hand it over to the proper military authorities and kept his mouth shut until he was given clearance to open it.
Why would he do this? Let's say out of an abundance of caution so as not to hang this young man out to dry in the media, to be sure he had solid footing to report the 'hot scoop' on, TO NOT ENDANGER OUR TROOPS THROUGH WORLD WIDE SHOWING OF THE VIDEO that could be construed just as it is being, by people who WERE NOT IN THE MOSQUE AND WHO HAD NO RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE SAFETY OF THEMSELVES AND OTHERS (This would include the embeds).
Kevin Sites failed. Failed miserably as a decent human being, but that usually happens with libs, their sheep clothing slips when they smell blood.
Thanks for a good post on some of the background of this matter...
You are so right. The MSM have already done so much damage, not enough soap in the entire world to wash off their sins. And they show no intent to stop.
What makes the whole thing even more despicable is that this is at least partially being done for news ratings in a sweeps month.
“Every soldier has a right to defend himself...
I beg to differ. Combat photography is nowhere near a spectator event. Robert Capa, Sean Flynn, Larry Burrows, Dana Stone, the list of photographers who have been killed covering war zones is very long.
Check out the book Requiem: By the Photographers Who Died in Vietnam and Indochina edited by Tim Page, a man who himself was wounded four times in Vietnam, the last being from a landmine while trying to help wounded US Soldiers.
Thank you for pointing out that NBC is owned by General Electric. I heard on Bill Bennett's program this morning that the tape was also send to Al Jazeera, before the tape was broadcast on US television.
When the SAS conducted the rescue mission at the Iranian Embassy in London, none of the hostage takers survived. Some wounded on the ground tried surrendering when an SAS trooper went by, and still got shot. Tough! That's war, especially when the enemy is not a regular combatant (by literal interpretation of Geneva).
You bring up an area I have had questions about before. I was reading about the two different flag raising on Iwo Jima and from links there heard about combat photographers.
Are these enlisted men who are designated the task that our embeds do now? Does the military still have combat trained soldiers who are responsible for also acquiring a photographic testimony of their activities in the combat zone. Are civilian photographers also referred to as combat photographers? *I can't get amazon to come up right now.
The guy that filmed this also made statements against the Marine. This journalist is a low-life scumbag out to make our troops look bad. You are quite the F'in idiot to blame the President for this incident. Are things slow at DU?
No. The footage was reported out of context with the intent to do harm to marines and with the knowlege of incitement. In the big war, this would not have been reported except to the military authorities.
Go to the photographer's web site and see what his intent is.
You are correct though, about whether this bozo should even have been with the squad. Print media, O.K...but not video cameras. In an urban war, these guys are just so much dangerous dead wood for the troops to carry.
Before this is over we will probably refer to these type incidents as a "Kerry killing".
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