The following video has been the rage the last few days:
The US Military is being thoroughly demonized for the death of two reporters, and the injuring of two children…But how about a little reality check here?
If there is a war going on, regardless of whether you agree with the war or not, and you are a reporter, and you choose to walk around amongst enemy combatants who are carrying RPG launchers and AK-47s, and you get shot by the opposing side…who’s fault is that? How about your own fault for being stupid enough to be there? These Reuters reporters knew that they were in a territory that was “hot”, and that the chance of being in the midst of a firefight was high…in fact that is exactly why they were there. They WANTED to be in the midst of a firefight. Enough of this making martyrs out of the reporters: These guys were gleefully pursuing a career, and making MONEY getting pictures of the war. Come on. Admit it. These guys would have been thrilled to have gotten blood and-gore-pictures of SOMEBODY ELSE getting killed. In fact, they would have loved nothing more than to have gotten pictures of some innocent bystander or even children getting killed. That would have been really sensational. They would have run back with their pictures of somebody else getting killed and gotten a huge pat on the back from Reuters and maybe even a big bonu$. Well guess what… Fate turned the tables on these guys and instead of them getting pictures of somebody else getting their guts blown out…Somebody else got pictures of them getting their guts blown out. I call that poetic justice.
Much is made about the US military mistaking cameras for guns. Well duh. Remember Kent State? As I recall, speculation was that a telephoto lens on a camera was mistaken as a weapon, which lead to the Ohio National Guard opening fire. Remember in NY a while back when two New York cops shot a guy with a cell phone because they thought he had a gun? Maybe if you’ve got two brain cells connected in any kind of meaningful arrangement in your skull, you might start thinking that it is a bad idea (especially in a war zone) to walk around with something that could be mistaken as a weapon. Even when I’m getting stopped by a cop here in the good old USA, I make very sure when that cop comes up to the door of my car that I’m not reaching in my dash, or holding anything in my hand that looks like a weapon, or doing anything that he may mistake as a threatening action. Why? Because the cop has a GUN, and if he THINKS that I have one, he might shoot my ass. So can the drivel about how awful it is when a camera gets mistaken for a weapon in a war zone. All you’re going to get from me is a big yawn and a “so what?”.
And what about the two children who were wounded? Well answer this question…How many of you would load two of your children up in a van and drive to a location in a war zone where a couple of minutes before, an Apache helicopter had pulverized the area with 30mm cannon? The people who are responsible for those children being injured are the idiots who put them in a van and drove them there, and nobody else. Anybody who is stupid enough to stand out in the open and walk around in an area where just a few minutes before an Apache helicopter has struck is just too stupid to live. And to put children in a van and bring them along is stupidity beyond belief. Anyone who tries to demonize the military for this isn’t living in the real world. They are living in a world created out of their own agendas and fantasies.
And finally, all of this indignant hand wringing about the mean old cold blooded US soldiers talking callously about killing their enemies…GROW UP!!!! It’s a WAR stupid! That’s what war is. In war, when you kill your enemy you are happy. When they kill you, you aren’t so happy. What is so hard to understand about that?
C. R. Grizzle