US soldier cleared in shooting of unarmed, wounded, motionless insurgent

[Redleg]

Good news.

War is hell and you cannot condemn a specific soldier simply because that particular part of hell happened to be caught on tape.

In this you are incorrect in my opinion PJ. The actions of the individual soldier should be questioned and it should be investigated to insure that there is no violation of the Rules of Engagement or the UCMJ done by soldiers. If soldiers believe that they will not be held accountable or responsible for their actions in war - you will find American soldier will begin to act like the criminals that some already accuse American soldiers of being. Objective review of questionable acts by soldiers in war is always warranted.

The media should be the ones in trouble here. It is completely ridiculous that they feel it neccessary to undermine the military whenever they can. These issues, which are a part of every conflict, must be handled by the military and out of the site of the american public if we hope to win.

What good did showing that tape 24/7 do? Why dont they show tapes of the body parts of 300 iraqis blown apart by terrorists?

The whole imbedded reporter thing was stupidity. You do not win a war against an insurgency with a camera in every unit. That type of war is inherently dirty and how are our soldiers supposed to perform if they are worried their actions will get blown up by the media on a slow news day?

Well I don't like the media on the battlefield - however if they can show warfare in all its ugliness - then maybe politicians will be forced to think about using armed force with a little more due dilegence before they use it.

[PanzerJaeger]

In this you are incorrect in my opinion PJ. The actions of the individual soldier should be questioned and it should be investigated to insure that there is no violation of the Rules of Engagement or the UCMJ done by soldiers. If soldiers believe that they will not be held accountable or responsible for their actions in war - you will find American soldier will begin to act like the criminals that some already accuse American soldiers of being. Objective review of questionable acts by soldiers in war is always warranted.

Remember i said:

These issues, which are a part of every conflict, must be handled by the military and out of the site of the american public if we hope to win.

I dont have a problem with bad soldiers being punished, but i cannot stand that the media puts this stuff on the 24 hour cycle and passes its own judgement on the man.

You most likely know better than I do how important these guys are to our nation and what good people the vast majority of them are. You probably also know the stresses of combat much better than me.

It is wrong in my opinion for the media to treat our military with such hostility. I can only imagine the pressure the military and even our ground troops are under with nosey reporters searching desperately for the next big story.

In ww2 they understood, but somewhere in vietnam they traded in their values when they saw how important they would seem for attacking the military. It has hurt America ever since, in my opinion.