You guys still aren't getting it, and it's a damn shame that you won't get it unless you become an actual member of your Forces... When you're in a helo like that you have to rely on sub-par visuals to identify threats unless you're right the hell on top of them, when you're in an active combat zone you do everything you can to protect yourself and your friendlies. I would still take this stance if I personally saw some soldiers engage targets at range that appeared to be armed, only to have been holding other objects. It's no different than Police firing at and killing kids wielding toy guns that look realistic.
Here's an example of what I mean when I say "you do what you can to protect yourself and your friendlies/allies": I was talking to an active member of the CF that had recently come back from Afghanistan, we ended up talking about roadblocks and the procedures involved. He stated that the CF standard operating procedure dictated that if a person or vehicle keeps coming towards the roadblock, you shoot a warning shot in front of them, and if they STILL continue towards you you shoot THEM. However he said that when they were in a known military "hot zone" or combat area, they would simply shoot whoever or whatever was coming towards them if they didn't stop after the initial warnings and then shoot another shot off just so that "two shots are heard and cover our ass if any questions are brought up". Why do they do this? Well you tell me if you'd rather get blown up or ripped apart by shrapnel because you listened to the SOP in a known hot zone.
In regards to journalists knowing what they're going into, that's absolutely correct, and these guys were native to the area from my understanding so they knew better than anyone. However, lots of Forces have been pushing to outlaw civilian journalists into active combat areas for quite a few years now. The Canadian Forces have Imagery Technicians for a reason, it's so that we can send in properly trained SOLDIERS that are primarily there to capture photos or record video that the media can use. They're not some off-hand trained group of soldiers either, they go through Basic Military Qualification just like the majority of the rest of the Canadian Forces.
All the members in our Forces are "Soldiers First" and then specialize in whatever else after the fact.
@InnerGoat: Blatant war crimes? If it were a blatant war crime this thread, the Collateral Murder website, and all related material wouldn't be under debate right now. This is OBVIOUSLY not a blatant war crime.
Oh by the way guys, the media organization in question has had history with embedding their reporters, journalists, and photographers in with insurgent groups in order to get the "true story". There are also a couple of people that DO appear to be carrying some type of assault rifles, these were one of two things, insurgents or private security forces. Private security forces are always at risk of coming under fire from troops in a situation like this.
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