Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1

For a moment, I’m paralyzed still taping with the old man in the foreground. I get up after a beat and tell the Marines again, what I had told the lieutenant — that this man — all of these wounded men — were the same ones from yesterday. That they had been disarmed treated and left here.

At that point the Marine who fired the shot became aware that I was in the room. He came up to me and said, “I didn’t know sir-I didn’t know.” The anger that seemed present just moments before turned to fear and dread.

The wounded man then tries again to talk to me in Arabic. —Kevin Sites

—Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1  (Kevin Sites Blog)

The embedded reporter who videotaped a Marine shooting a wounded soldier reflects on his role in the political fallout that ensued.

Some excellent lessons on the journalist’s responsibility to be fair, yet human, when faced with the full range of human behavior.