Hey Hey USA, how many journalists did you kill today?

[MichaeltheGreat]

Re: Hey Hey USA, how many journalists did you kill today?

Originally posted by Agathon
Man, I can't believe it. I was watching live coverage of the war last night and an ADTV cameraman had a really good shot of two Abrams on a bridge in Baghdad. They must have thought he was a sniper because they aimed machine gun fire at him. Undeterred by the bullets he got up and kept filming. Then one of the tanks blew up the building he was in. Luckily, he survived.

Now news that a whole lot more journalists have been killed or injured today.

Is their some vendetta against the press in Centcom or are the soldiers stupider than their munitions?

"Infantry 4 o'clock, on the bridge, 300 meters!"

"Hey, maybe that's a cameraman instead of an ATGM eam. Let's just sit here and see if he fires at us, we've got that GI insurance for our families"

"Fire MG over his head, get him the **** out of here, whatever he is"

(fires)

(dumbass pops up again)

"ATGM team up! No ****ing cameraman is that ****ing stupid"

"Load HE!"

"UP!"

...

Something like that. Anyone with a lick of common sense is going to get the hell out of Dodge when two M1A1's start to care.

Wasn't it you, (it sure was some commie) that said war correspondents know the risks they're taking when I pointed out that in the last Gulf War, the Iraqis had their Baghdad southern sector air defense command and contol facilities in the basement of the al Rashid hotel, where they also required foreign journalists to stay?

[MarkG]

Baghdad is a combat zone, and Saddam's forces have proved themselves more than willing to hide out in civilian compounds in the past to try and evade our gunfire.

all irrelevant under the specific data describing the situation (no fire from hotel, which was a known location of all journalists in bagdad)

[Zero]

Originally posted by Osweld


I never said otherwise. (Why do so many people equate speaking against america with supporting saddam?

Cause thats always been our logic historically!

Iraqi war is just the witch hunt thats in style now.

[Ben Kenobi]

Now call me curmudgeonly, but isn't it customary to identify one's target before aiming tank rounds at it?

Agathon, did the Americans not bomb 3 Canadians on training exercises? Friendly Fire is friendly fire, regardless of whether it hits journalists or combat troops.

[MarkG]

Something like that. Anyone with a lick of common sense is going to get the hell out of Dodge when two M1A1's start to care.

the tanks were 2klm away from the hotel and were just sitting there for hours....

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by MarkG

Baghdad is a combat zone, and Saddam's forces have proved themselves more than willing to hide out in civilian compounds in the past to try and evade our gunfire.

all irrelevant under the specific data describing the situation (no fire from hotel, which was a known location of all journalists in bagdad)

This is a war, not peacekeeping. Nobody has to wait for the other SOB to shoot first.

In the post immediately above, you said the tanks were 2 km away. There are ATGMs that easily exceed that range, but with the gunner's sight (max 10x mag), there's no way for the gunner to tell that's someone with a camera.

There's also no way to tell if someone's shooting or about to shoot, there's just an apparent threat.

There's also the fact that it's a boxy tan concrete building, in a city full of boxy tan concrete buildings. Sorry we didn't have time to issue everyone our new 500,000 page manual "A picture book of Baghdad: Every conveivable view of every conceivable building that you might someday be maybe be told you probably shouldn't shoot at without good reason."

[Tuberski]

Originally posted by MarkG

Something like that. Anyone with a lick of common sense is going to get the hell out of Dodge when two M1A1's start to care.

the tanks were 2klm away from the hotel and were just sitting there for hours....

And then someone 2 klm away points a black object, that coould be an RPG launcher at them, FROM COVER, and they are supposed to wait until they find out if he's a cameraman or a soldier?

Get real.

ACK!

[KrazyHorse]

There aren't binoculars?

[MarkG]

amazingly enough
a) there have been no other incidents of tanks shooting black objects 2klm away from them
b) journalists were aimed in three ocassions today (the other other were al jazeera and abu duabi offices geting bombed)

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by Frogger
There aren't binoculars?

10x gunners sight, and the tank commander usually has an 8x set of binoculars, plus his 3x sight.

[Cyclotron]

We just entered Baghdad recently, where many journalists are. It should be obivious that the situation is riskier for them now than it was a week ago.

MarkG, the soldiers believed they were being fired upon from the building, so they returned fire. While regrettable as an accident, the idea it was deliberate simply has no factual basis.

[MichaeltheGreat]

Originally posted by MarkG
amazingly enough
a) there have been no other incidents of tanks shooting black objects 2klm away from them

How would you or anyone else know? I'm sure tanks have been shooting at all sorts of interesting things, at all sorts of ranges.

b) journalists were aimed in three ocassions today (the other other were al jazeera and abu duabi offices geting bombed)

Probably located from sat-phone comms. We're after people who use too many on-peak minutes, you know?

[KrazyHorse]

MtG: what does that mean? That anybody who uses a sat phone is a valid military target? Even if they're operating out of a location which they've reported to the US as being a news headquarter?

[Ming]

I still love how posters here think they can read minds and KNOW FOR SURE what somebody elses intent was.

[KrazyHorse]

Originally posted by MichaeltheGreat


10x gunners sight, and the tank commander usually has an 8x set of binoculars, plus his 3x sight.

Now, I'm not sure whether or not a 10X sight would bring 'em close enough to tell the difference between a hand-held AT unit and a camera, but my point is that they didn't just see him as a speck on the horizon...

Does a handheld AT round even go 2 km?

That one I'm willing to give a pass on, though. The one that seems suspicious is the bombing of known news headquarters...