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Grubble Grubble
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Thursday, August 21, 2003 :::
rant
Recenty, U.S. soldiers killed Mazen Dana, a Reuters news cameraman. He was killed because U.S. troops mistook him for an enemy combatant with a rocket launcher. The media is making a large issue of how our troops need to be more careful and protective of reporters.
Mazen Dana was not "embedded" journalist. He was in Iraq as a freelance reporter. A picture of him on the day he died showed him wearing military-style clothing and a combat helmet. It also showed the camera on his shoulder. I can easily see how he can be confused with an enemy combatant with a rocket launcher.
Apparently, 17 journalists have been killed since military action began in Iraq and 2 are missing. Mind you, not all of these constitute combat deaths. One journalist died of a heart attack and I do not have the stats on the rest.
I am a former soldier. I am a former soldier who has been in combat situations. In some of those instances, journalists were present. We never invited them to be there. Our unit commanders never invited them to be there. They came of their own accord, and so, should accept that the consequences of their choices can sometimes be deadly.
If you place yourself in a live-fire situation, you have the chance of being hit by a bullet. If you compound this by drawing attention to yourself, such as with camera flashes that can be mistaken for muzzle flash, you have greatly increased the chances that you are going to draw fire.
Soldiers are trained for combat. As we are once again learning, they are not trained for police work. They are not trained as tour guides. They are not trained as bodyguards. They are trained to kill enemy combatants. If you place yourself in a position where you can be mistaken for an enemy combatant, especially in the heat of combat, you must accept the risk of being shot and possibly killed.
General Douglas MacArthur, during a commencement speech at West Point, once said, "the soldier above all other people prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
Sometimes, combat journalists can suffer the wounds and scars of war. However, as combat reporting pays their bills and brings them acclaim, I wonder how many of those journalists pray for peace.
/rant
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