Reply #39: If there was an a) there was at least a b) [View All]

[maxudargo]

Only if those soldiers deliberately tried to kill the journalist should you be using the word murder. If they deliberately tried to kill the people in the car thinking those people were enemy combatants and a potential threat to them, the word "murder" does not apply.

I'm sorry, but your sloppy use of the language contributes nothing to the discussion, and creates an opportunity for those who want to mischaracterize leftists. I wish you would be a little more careful in your word choices and a lot less stubborn.

It makes no sense the soldiers would have been ordered to shoot the journalist. It makes no political sense. Look at the results in terms of the political fallout in Italy and the bind in which it puts Berlusconi, a steady Bush ally so far. The shooting does nothing to further the Bush agenda. Quite the opposite.

If the soldiers deliberately targeted the journalist without orders from above, they were being awfully stupid considering the spotlight on this person.

I think the important, and rational, insight this incident provides is how chaotic and out of control the situation in Iraq is even now, and even on a key road to the Baghdad international airport, which you would think would be the one road we'd have tightly secured by now.

Until somebody has some evidence to suggest there was a deliberate conspiracy to murder the journalist, I think it is foolish to speculate so wildly. I think there are questions that need to be answered, but we'll have to rely on the Italians to ask them, unless you've got a lead.