It was 90% on camera. The military spokesman made the initial press realease, then was on camera with the "truth," then had to restate the "truth." It turns out that the real facts were about as different from those the military made up initially as they could have been. Maybe it's on the 60 minutes web site. What made the report so real to me was that I've personally witnessed the same total distortion of the truth years ago, done as a matter of course. The other thing that made it real was the belated retractions and admissions of the military spokesmen, on camera.
Unless you've seen the military's version of the "the truth" in a combat zone, you would have no idea how widespread distortion and outright lying is. It's easy to find those that will do it and it's easy to punish those that tell the truth and let the other lifers know what happens to their careers when they don't "play ball."
You should be less naive if you expect to be a good citizen and intelligently weigh the issues. The fact is that the people in the military run the gamut of honesty, integrity and character to the same extent, and no more, than the civilian population from which they come. The difference is that in the military where "failure is not an option," and heads roll when things go wrong, the pressure to shade or obscure the truth is much greater.
PS. Regarding your question; "Are they saying our troops are so kill mad they opened fire on a truck just for the hell of it?" The answer is probably not. As you may have recalled from some posts I have made in the past, however, this is a common late tour occurence in places where our men take hits from hit and run attacks. Over time they get scared, then angry then they are hair trigger ready to strike out at anything that could possibly be dangerous. Sometimes they resent the locals who seem to hide, protect and cheer on those that attack them and don't really give a shit if they shoot too soon. You might feel the same way if you felt someone was about to kill you all the time and if he'd wounded or killed your buddies. It's the way we are and it's the way it's always been. In the long run insurgents count on that factor to bring the local population more strongly in their camp, and they're usually correct. |
