When "oops" just doesn't cut it.

[Jazzman]

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

And laws of physics aside, Jazzman, I find it physically suspicious that the Italian agent who, by all eyewitness reports, threw his body over the journalist was "accidentally" shot while the soldiers aimed for the engine block. It certainly is a possibility that their aim was off and coincidentally went straight for the person purportedly targeted for assassination. If that's the case, it's a tough break for the U.S. I don't think most Italians are taking it as a coincidence, and I don't see any reason to consider it that way either.

I’ll cede that point to you. If someone sees a suspicious coincidence there, I won’t argue with anyone asking that question. However, I don’t see anyone asking any question; I see accusations and judgments. It’s cool to say, “Hmmm, is this possible?” and explore that. But this habit of immediately saying, “Well, this must be what happened because it shows that the U.S. is evil!” is just discriminatory and a bit rash. Not to mention how unfair it is to the service men and women over there.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

And I appreciate that you'd like to characterize these marines as just some goofball good guys who made a tragic error in the heat of combat duty, but I just don't buy it. History as recent as Abu-Graib puts the lie to the simple assumption that all U.S. soliders are good guys who do no purposeful evil. That's crap. No one is immune from purposeful evil in war. I'd agree that most soldiers don't succumb to that. But lots of them on every side of every conflict surely do. So, no, I cannot simply assume that these marines weren't thwarted only by a human shield from hitting their intended and ordered target.

Citing one isolated example of a handful of soldiers who went too far and broke civil and military laws (And were caught and dealt with by the military instead of being covered up, as they could have.) hardly puts any lie to anything. A dozen or so misfits hardly characterize the tens of thousands of military men and women in our armed forces. The great majority of service personnel are everyday men and women who are good people, and who are doing their jobs and trying to make a difference. Dismissing them and their intentions simply because a very small rogue group committed a crime is the same false logic that leads to things like racism and prejudice. It’s a generalization, and a bad one at that.

Originally Posted by innerSpaceman

As far-fetched as the U.S. motive may seem, it's there. Where's the Italian motive for risking all by barreling through a military checkpoint?

To you perhaps, but I fail to see any motive here. Despite GD’s “See what ya get!” assertion, I don’t see any possible positive outcome for the U.S. in this at all. With all of the negative press floating around the world regarding Iraq it would have been in our best interest to make sure that nothing at all happened to them on their way out, lest the international community have something more to scream about; as they now do. I really see this all as one big, tragic chain of events that started out with an ill-conceived rescue plan that didn’t involve informing the military of what was going to happen. Had that one simple step been taken I doubt that anyone would have died.