When US marines kill a pregnant woman at a check point that is a regrettable accident. When we learn that US marines may have killed 24 innocent civilians as retribution, is it too much to ask that we accept a zero tolerance level for murder? Apparently it is for idiots like pedro.

You’re right. I’ll bet anyone right now that during the sensationalizing of these trials (during election season no less!) we will see next to nothing about the dozens (or perhaps hundreds) of Marines and soldiers who have been wounded in Iraq because they were left vulnerable to terrorists after being ordered to hold their fire because civilians were present.

Sundown-

Unfortunately Marines are human beings, not ideals. And human beings snap under stress and do otherwise unthinkable things.

Terrorists like Al Qaeda prey on civilians and use them for cover specifically to entice our troops to fire on civilians. They know that if we kill civilians (even accidentally), every good thing accomplished by our military will be forgotten. And they know that we are the only party that the media will hold accountable to the standards of the Geneva Conventions. The Viet Cong parlayed this into a winning strategy thirty-odd years ago, and Al Qaeda have been good students.

Until we find a way to make ourselves superhuman, there will always be someone who fails under pressure. Google “un peacekeeper child prostitution” for a prime example.

Yea, as long as there are republicans in office, the “bar” is officially set for “Perfection”……

This is why no one serious listens to leftists…

On the other hand, whenever the South Vietnamese and Americans went looking for Viet Cong and clumsily raided a village or mistakenly attacked civilians, American TV cameras were there to record it all.

And when the networks in New York got the footage, it was given its own sensationalized context: “My God! All we’re doing over there is burning homes and attacking civilians!!”

We completely failed to effectively communicate the savagery of the VC. Even visual imagery didn’t help, because film of American troops mowing down the jungle with machine gun fire made much better television than pictures of the dead bodies that the VC left behind.

I believe that this sort of journalism is still alive today. Compare the reluctance of the mainstream networks to show video from 9/11 or to air videos of terrorists sawing people’s heads off, with the eagerness of those same networks to show the Abu Graib photos or air allegations of abuse at Gitmo.

It’s not about propaganda or “cover-ups.” It’s about telling both sides of the story fairly.

But SaveFarris, why do you set the bar so low?
This is America. Ideally there should be NO instances like Haditha.