If you haven't heard, a british coroner has ruled that U.S. forces are responsible for the death of Terry Lloyd, a 50-year-old reporter for the British television network ITN who was killed on March 22, 2003. They are calling this a "war crime". You can read the entire story here.
I'm sorry, but it's my opinion that journalists who voluntarily venture into a known war zone to try and get a story, are doing so with the full and complete knowledge that they are putting themselves into an imminently dangerous situation. While I am definitely in the anti-Iraq war camp, this is nothing more than a blatant smear campaign. The driver of the mini-van in which the wounded Terry Lloyd was being driven, admits himself that he was "driving blindly through smoke" when the bullet that killed Mr. Lloyd hit him. If he was driving through thick, blinding smoke, how could anyone firing in the direction of the mini-van be expected to see the markings on the van and know that it was a vehicle belonging to a "non-combatant"?
This sounds like nothing more or less than the old axiom of "being in the wrong spot, at the wrong time." Obviously though, if our own allies are turning against us, it's time to get out of Iraq before even more fingerpointing begins to occur. It looks like soon it will not just be the U.S. against Iraq, it will soon be the U.S. against the world...and that is one fight that not even we could come out of on top.
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