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November 22, 2004

Kevin Sites Blog

Kevin Sites, the photojournalist that took the video of the Marine shooting the insurgent in the Fallujah mosque, has posted an open letter to the Marines of 3/1 on his blog. This is Kevin's side of the story and in fairness he deserves an opportunity to be heard. Like Kevin admits, only the Marine that pulled the trigger knows what was going on in his mind at the time. That Marine had been wounded only the day before, and a friend had been blown up by a booby-trapped body. Nonetheless, from Kevin's viewpoint we have:

To Devil Dogs of the 3.1;

Since the shooting in the Mosque, I've been haunted that I have not been able to tell you directly what I saw or explain the process by which the world came to see it as well. As you know, I'm not some war zone tourist with a camera who doesn't understand that ugly things happen in combat. I've spent most of the last five years covering global conflict. But I have never in my career been a 'gotcha' reporter -- hoping for people to commit wrongdoings so I can catch them at it.

This week I've even been shocked to see myself painted as some kind of anti-war activist. Anyone who has seen my reporting on television or has read the dispatches on this website is fully aware of the lengths I've gone to play it straight down the middle -- not to become a tool of propaganda for the left or the right.

But I find myself a lightning rod for controversy in reporting what I saw occur in front of me, camera rolling.

It's time you to have the facts from me, in my own words, about what I saw --    

Read the rest.....

Having read Kevin's viewpoint I believe him to be sincere. On the otherhand, he wasn't that Marine, he didn't have the same responsibility, the same fatique, the same fear, the same experiences. To Kevin perhaps the glass was half-full. To that Marine it could have appeared overflowing. Let's not forget that the Marine has his own story too, and it counts a hell of a lot more, at least to me. Semper Fi!
Cudos to Powerline for his alert posting.
Cudos to Kevin for his excellent photo essay.
Update: Rusty at Jawa Report doesn't let Kevin Sites off so easy, he posts "Kevin Sites You Are Still A Traitor." Read More...

Posted by Hyscience at November 22, 2004 6:04 PM

• Kevin Sites Blog - Nov 22, 2004