Reporter Finds U.S. Sniper Who Shot Foreign Correspondent in Iraq.
(July 27, 2005) -- One of the most remarkable stories of the Iraq war appears today at the online magazine Salon, written by its longtime foreign correspondent Phillip Robertson. Amazingly, he managed this month to track down the American sniper who apparently shot and killed Knight Ridder correspondent Yasser Salihee, 33, on June 24. The article, "The Victim and the Killer," chronicles this search, and lengthy exchanges between Robertson and the sniper, described only as "Joe."
I had missed this story, which is remarkable both for the journalistic skill in tracking down the sniper and for the restraint with which it appears to be written. (I have to say appears, because I cannot get into the original source at Salon Magazine without disabling ad blocking in my browser.) The link however is here if you want to follow it up.
It points up the appallingly difficult decisions that have to be made by troops in the tense conditions prevailing in Iraq and similar wars. Sometimes they will get it wrong and no amount of recrimination after the event will change that. However, so long as the men and women taking these decisions act honestly - as this soldier seems to have done - we can surely expect no more from them. We must recognise that the actions of honest men during a war can be considered separately from the actions of those who placed them there in the first place - something that Mr Galloway might think about perhaps? (although I'm not holding my breath...)
