NBC Photographer in Fallujah

The photographer pictured below, Kevin Sites (with a t, not a k), shot a video film showing a Marine executing a (seemingly) wounded insurgent. You know, like Kerry claimed he did back in the Viet Name war -- only in this case the soldier didn't shoot the enemy in the back.

Kevin Sites, "the NBC cameraman who shot video of the controversial shooting of a Fallujah insurgent by a U.S. Marine, is an anti-war activist whose photographs of Iraqi prisoners are featured on at least one anti-war website. . . Images Against War is one website where Sites' photography appears, giving two separate pages to his work. One of the pages, labeled 'Kevin Sites 2,' features photos of captured Iraqis with one caption saying detainees on a truck were enduring 'a long ride into uncertainty.' Most of the photos featured on the site engender sympathy toward U.S. enemy fighters and antipathy toward American military personnel."

(A side note of interest: Images Against War is a German website. The posters on the website have called Sites a traitor and a terrorist sympathizer.)

But back to the war. The Marines on the video tape had entered a room where several insurgents seemed dead. One moved. This particular Marine had seen a buddy die when a corpse exploded the day before and had, himself, been shot in the face. Furthermore these soldiers knew that wounded insurgents had been known to lob hand grenades at US soldiers when they came near. So the Lieutenant did what anyone with half an ounce of self-preservation (and sense) would do. When it moved, he shot it.

So now the media is howling for the soldier's head...and career....and retirement and disgrace and any other pound of flesh they can exact. That's totally wrong. In the first place, this is a war without rules. We mustn't hamper our soldiers by insisting they obey "rules of war" when the enemy doesn't. Rules of war are silly anyway. War is not a moral activity but it's a necessary one.

But look what Sites wrote about what the Marines are experiencing: "Despite the constant weapons fire and explosion that have accompanied our advance -- this one is different -- it's directed at the Marines. As a squad from India Company passes by a way with a spray painted rocket propelled grenade launcher -- a real RPG round explodes against it. One Marines' face is burned by the powder and hot gas -- another has caught shrapnel in the leg, a third has been shot in the finger by the small arms fire that followed. The Marines are outraged. They turn their M-16's on the building to the west where they believe the shooter is hiding."

That pretty well explains the mindset of the Marines, doesn't it?

Sites, a freelance reporter with a HUGE ego, was formerly with CNN and presumably left that organization after they asked him not to blog about the war any more. So you can judge for yourself, he blogs here.
This is the original report Sites filed.

This is a report that should never have been filed. And the investigation of the soldier is an investigation that should never happen -- except that there is a good side to it. It gets that soldier out of "harm's way" for a while.