Editor,
To Andrew Beale:
As an American, you are free to express your opinion. However, if you are going to criticize the United States, you should get your facts straight, especially as a journalist. I recall a time when reporters were supposed to report impartially on the news. Apparently that is no longer true. But as a journalist, you should at least uphold some basic journalistic standards and get your facts straight. Maybe you missed that class, so I will point a few things out.
First, the Apache gun camera video. Watch the complete, unedited video. You can’t get the truth from the Wikileaks edited version. Even the head of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, admits that the video was constructed to get the “maximum political impact.” He also admits that the “civilians” were carrying AK-47s and at least one rocket-propelled grenade. That makes these men armed insurgents.
They shoot and kill anyone they don’t like, including American soldiers. And in case you never saw the movie “Black Hawk Down,” an RPG can take out a helicopter. As for the two reporter/photographers, they were hanging out with the insurgents, trying to get some good pictures and a story.
They appear to be scouting for them, looking around corners and taking pictures of American ground forces. You can see this in the video, if you bother to look, and in the photos recovered from his camera. Not that there is anything wrong with this, a good reporter tries to get both sides of the story. But in order to blend in they are not wearing the protective gear, labeled “PRESS,” used by reporters. So there is no way for the Apache pilots to identify them as reporters.
The van that comes up on the scene and is shot up is not an ambulance, or marked in any way to show that is a medical vehicle. And in the unedited video, there is no way to make out who is inside it. However, this van is identified as being with the insurgents in an earlier firefight. And it is picking up dead, wounded and weapons.
They certainly are not a “medical team.” If you want a more detailed examination of the incident, including the unedited video, go to Reddit.com/r/Military.
Mr. Beale, I don’t believe you have even looked at the actual video. As for laughing about it, that is called gallows humor. It is common among the military, police, fire fighters, medical (doctors and nurses), EMTs and many other groups who deal with really bad stuff on a daily basis. It is widely regarded as a coping mechanism. You can hear worse than that right here in Albuquerque.
Mr. Beale mentions an incident involving NATO troops in Afghanistan, and blames it on the U.S. In Afghanistan, U.S. and British troops are independently identified as such. NATO is applied to all the other NATO troops. You are wrong yet again.
Your take on World War II is quite interesting. Apparently you feel that the U.S. was the aggressor, and the Japanese and Nazis were merely innocent victims. And of course, the Albuquerque Police Department is under the direct control of the Pentagon.
But you are lucky, Mr. Beale, that you live in the United States, and can exercise your First Amendment right to spout off anything you want without being suppressed. I guess you got that one wrong too.
Ken Piniak
UNM student veteran
