Andy

War Coverage Outrage

In all likelihood you have heard at some point today, whether in print, on television, or online, that a soldier was videotaped shooting an unarmed insurgent believed to be playing dead during house-to-house fighting in Falluja on Saturday. In and of itself, an in-house military investigation on a matter such as this shows good judgment, but the nature of the resulting media coverage, fraught with implications of war crimes, shows a complete lack of concern towards our military as a whole.

Our troops face daily traps in which insurgents, bent on killing US soldiers in any way they can, fake death, lace their dead with explosives, and otherwise ignore every rule of international warfare one can name. Our news media simultaneously ignores these dangers in order to continue their subtle and sometimes not so subtle anti-war agendas under the guise of impartiality, without any consideration for the safety of the men and women facing them. If fault is to be found, it lies with those in charge of communications, not with a soldier indoctrinated to the tactics of a deceitful enemy faced with a split-second decision.

Those implying otherwise need to seriously rethink the importance of substantive reporting over the ratings to be had whenever scandal is paraded before news-hungry citizens. The news media is the only resource we have if we wish to remain informed about the world around us. Does the media then not bear the responsibility in reporting hard news over attention-grabbing drama?