Yeah I have to say these guys are guilty of only one thing from this video - saying some pretty callous things about a very awful situation.
I think that is pretty messed up all by itself, but outside of that people passing judgment based on the actual actions in the video are extremely premature.
-We don't know what events preceded this or what other actionable intelligence was being used, only that they were given clearance by command to fire.
-We don't know what the standard operating procedures actually are for this type of situation and whether these actions were out of the norm given the circumstances.
The fact is that by all appearances they followed procedure and were given clearance to fire. Their justification for that order is not at all considered or addressed by the video.
So while this is certainly an important piece of information in ascertaining exactly what happened it is only one side of the story. The sad truth is that this is what a war looks like and its not supposed to be pretty.
I'll finish by saying I do actually think things like this should not be made public. The amount of damage, in terms of morale as well as propaganda, that the video can do is immense. With that said issues like this must be dealt with, and if they aren't handled properly in a discrete fashion sometimes a public airing is the only way.
On that score we don't have a lot of information either. We'd have to know exactly what the military did to handle the situation before we could be certain. But as with the soldiers/command and their actions I will give the people who leaked the video the benefit of the doubt in the mean time.
PS - I understand there is an emotional reaction people have to this, but that emotion can't enter into how we actually deal with such things. That's not to say there should be no justice, quite the contrary, it just means justice must be had through a calm, cool, and reasoned approach, and not by way of a lynch mob.
 |
| To Each Man, Responsibility |
