Before I go to bed, I have to comment on this story about a Reuters cameraman accidently killed in Iraq. He was killed in the middle of a combat area, and Reporters without Borders is essentially saying he was murdered. The soldiers involved said they fired on a man who looked like he had a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
In the absence of any contrary evidence, I’ll believe the soldiers. They were in the middle of an attack that caused 66 casualties, and when they saw a man in “a house with a vantage point” — a classic sniper position to hide — they fired. How can a camera look like an RPG? Shadows, a flash of movement, the way it’s carried on the shoulder. The soldiers who fired had maybe a second or two to evaluate the threat and act on it. They were possibly negligent, but the idea they woke up this morning and said, “I’m gonna kill me a journalist,” is far-fetched.