November 18, 2004

Mosques, Marines, and Press Censorship

While I certainly have no knowledge of whether the Mosque shooting was valid or not, I can comment more accurately on the hew and cry of the videotape in this country. While there seems to be mostly good debate over the incident, there is clearly a darker side. There is a very ugly undercurrent over in the Wingnut camp to blame the cameraman for the whole incident. In other words, the journalist should have done his American Duty and destroyed the evidence in the name of promoting America and denying a propaganda opportunity to the insurgents. A related undercurrent argues that we are traitorous Americans for even questioning what a Marine does in any circumstance.

This is very dangerous. One of the fundamental, perhaps the fundamental right in this country is the right of free speech and debate. Without that, we cannot hope to have a functional democracy. The military justice system will decide the guilt or innocence of the Marine, but as citizens we not only have the right, but arguably the duty to see what our country is doing in Iraq and discuss and comment on it. Open debate is a far from treason as any action I can imaging, and the fact that some people equate the two is as frightening a thing as I have seen in quite a while.

Posted by baltar at November 18, 2004 05:33 PM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs


Comments

Dangerous, yes, but are you really so shocked? The level of "discourse" and the tone of rhetoric (about which Orcinus has been consistently writing some very, very well-researched and thoughtful posts) equate most things liberal (which the media is, of course) with treason on a regular basis.

I really must get my shit together and finish the "undermining democracy" post.

It seems to me that the question about the reporter has to do with whether or not we can reasonably interpret his action as some kind of protected "whistle blower" behavior. If not, and the reporter violated the rules, he should lose his embedded position or whatever the standard consequence is. However, I am loathe to make that sort of judgment on the basis of the sparse information I have (still buried in grading). As Burke reminded us: all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. The U.S. has no place executing people in mosques (note: I am not talking about self-defense). Our great power comes with great responsibility, and sometimes we have to face uncomfortable truths - and correct the mistakes - as part of that responsibility. I hope that if this is one of those cases, the regrettable if understandable negative effects of the publicity are outweighed by the positive effects of preventing future injustices. And perhaps the reporter was doing something instead of nothing.

Posted by: binky at November 18, 2004 06:00 PM | PERMALINK

i have nothing to add to this discussion, but in a series of posts, Eugene Volokh does.

i highly recommend these posts, if you're interested in how the geneva conventions operate in this context.

Posted by: joshua at November 19, 2004 09:36 AM | PERMALINK

thanks joshua. also not being 1) an expert or 2) in the know on this issue, i don't believe i have much to add either. however, i find the discussion between volokh and carter interesting on two points: 1) whether or not the insurgents were technically "captured" or not and 2) if the shooter reasonably feared that the wounded insurgent was going to commit a "perfidious act" such as detonating a suicide bomb. i would imagine in the falluja situation, almost anyone walking down the street would trigger a fear of perfidious acts. this is definitely a difficult situation.

Posted by: binky at November 19, 2004 01:38 PM | PERMALINK

the rules of engagement question also is interesting, insofar as we've already seen, in the gonzalez memo, a willingness to look for loopholes in the law. i'd be curious to measure, in the abstract, the rules of engagement against the geneva conventions.

Posted by: joshua at November 19, 2004 04:16 PM | PERMALINK
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