Thanks to Dad for the link: http://slate.msn.com/id/2109904/
This is a great article, it's very unambiguous, and downright pro-American, which has to be pretty courageous for Slate staffers. The conclusion says it all: “War may be hell, but no honorable warrior likes to spread the hell unnecessarily. Killing Hassan, regardless of any attenuated argument the insurgent apologists may make, was both unlawful and amoral—and beneath what any warrior would do. Killing the insurgent in a split second because it was instinctual, on the other hand, was a tragedy, not an atrocity.”
I also found this very interesting, in terms of the impact it had on my outlook: “This case would not exist without Mr. Sites. That a young soldier deferred to instinct over the rulebook in combat is unsurprising. What was surprising was the near-instant transmission of a battlefield video around the world, allowing us to witness the actions of one American rifleman.” I think it's an interesting coincidence that I had commented on Sites just a few days before this incident. I'm fairly confused as to what to think here. My initial reaction was that he was only doing his job, and while it might be bad news and damaging for our military effort in Iraq, he was only reporting what he saw. Over time, I'm starting to turn away from that view, and wonder if Sites really made the right call, and wonder what it says about his character. A man that can travel with these Marines, see their pain, fear, fatigue and suffering, and who would still send this obviously damning tape in despite that knowledge... I don't know. I tend to think it's not a great commentary on Sites' patriotism, his empathy with his own countrymen, and his respect for America's image. I think that if he feels that this tape accurately “tells the story” of American Marines in Iraq, then he doesn't think much of American Marines. Then again, perhaps it does tell the story, and Sites simply had no idea how anti-American voices, both outside and inside the US, would turn this into a war crime, and political weapon. It's hard to say what it all means, what Sites' thought process is, and what the right thing to do should be.
Still, I'm comforted that American news outlets, especially left leaning ones like the Slate, have it in them to call it like it is, to forgive a tired, scared American soldier for a mistake, and to remind themselvs of why that soldier needs to be in Iraq, going through what he is. There's an enemy out there, that enemy has no respect, no decency, no humanity. Enemies without and within want to tell us that we're a greater evil than the men that gleefully taped the murder of a woman who had worked for almost 30 years to help the people of Iraq. As tempting as it might be to slap such people down for their lies, a truly honorable nation will simply ignore them, keep doing what's right, and remain confident in the knowledge that even the worst of our soldiers are better than the best of our enemies.