The mainstream media are all over the story of the Marine who shot the injured and unarmed Iraqi in Fallujah - on camera (not too bright and a bit too impulsive ). You can bet they'll be stringing this story out for weeks. It's a war and you're in the battle zone - what did you think was going to happen? These guys are trained to be killing machines, don't ask for apologies now.
Anyway, I watched the video this morning and something struck me about the encounter. It seemed kinda.....Hollywood. I don't mean that it was staged, I mean that the timing of the shooting (boom) and the one-liner, "He's dead now!" seemed like a scene from an actioin movie, like that Marine saw one too many Arnold Schwarzenegger movies and drew from that experience instead of his Marine training. I think "Platoon" was the first thing that jumped into my head.
Not that I think that it wasn't a justified shooting. According to rumor, some of the bodies have been booby-trapped and we all know how willing our enemy is to die for their cause by blowing themselves up (personnally, I think I'd be shooting anything that moved). But it seems that pop culture and it's movies have soaked into our very being, leaking out of our mouths at the worst possible moments.
Could the presence of a camera have anything to do with how this went down?
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I saw the video for the clip, but I didn't hear the one-liner. *shudder* This is why I'm afraid. But I'm not totally shocked. You're right. It's war. It happens- we may not like it, or be expecting it, but in doing neither, it takes a camera to show us what might... what could be happening.
Or, in this case, what is happening.
As far as whether or not the camera made a difference- I daren't begin to think. However, I do know one soldier that would probably have done the same thing in the heat of war, without thinking it over. Camera or no.
It was reported today on NPR that the Marine who shot the injured and unarmed Iraqi didn't know the camera was running. Also, it was reported that the Iraqi had been severely injured the day before and was supposed to be transported out of the war zone. Why he wasn't moved is still under investigation.
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