Disturbed

The shooting incident from Fallujah mosque is blogged about from the journalist that shot the footage. A very disturbing account. All I could think off was, war is hell.

Kevin Sites, the journalist in question is worried that the American troops he has been embedded with are upset at him for providing the footage of the shooting to the media, he is worried he will be perceived as some anti war activist. He starts he post by the following

Since the shooting in the Mosque, I've been haunted that I have not been able to tell you directly what I saw or explain the process by which the world came to see it as well. As you know, I'm not some war zone tourist with a camera who doesn't understand that ugly things happen in combat. I've spent most of the last five years overing global conflict. But I have never in my career been a 'gotcha' reporter -- hoping for people to commit wrongdoings so I can catch them at it.

I wonder if Kevin Sites would write a letter to the family of the shot man, what would it say?

Dear Family of shot man, I made sure not mention the names of the soldiers involved in the shooting in order to protect their privacy, in your son's case I didn't mention his name because I never bothered find out what his name was. I worried for hours about how the footage broadcast would effect the morals of the soldiers and their families back home, but really I didn't spend one second considering how seeing the last few seconds of your son's life would effect you. Afterall, your son chose to live by the sword and he died by the sword. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I do hope that all the American troops return home safely soon. When people like you commit acts of savagery, I have no problem showing them to the world and generalizing that all your people and your religion is to blame, when one of us acts in the same manner we ensure to explain the horrible strain the poor fellow was under and the circumstances that might have led the person involved to "lose it". I am American you see and I work for NBC, you hate us already so we don't bother with your feelings. I would like to report that while your son was being killed I performed my duties proudly, I kept rolling the camera and did my job. I watched and never lifted a finger to save your son's life.

I don't support the insurgents nor do I support their criminal activities that are killing mostly Iraqi civilians, but it bothers me to see Iraqi life treated with such disregard.