Last evening it took me about 40 minutes to download the second video of the shooting into the crowd. Toward the end, this video was barely loading in. It did not show shooters or who they were aiming at. With only that information I defended the French until I could find out more.
I just downloaded and viewed the first video showing the crowd and the troops in front of the hotel.
In the first video, shooting into the crowd seems evident. At this point I do believe the French have a lot of explaining to do.
While the first video does show some animated actions by some in the crowd, it doesn't show something worth using lethal force over.
At this point I wonder if one French troop snapped, then several others joined in. I'm willing to listen to an explanation, because it's evident we don't see what the troops were motivated by. Perhaps there was something. The video sure didn't show that part of the events.
Those of you who did see the first video last night were probably thinking I was trying to misguide those who didn't see the videos at all. No, I was just trying address what I had seen, which did not warrant some of the comments I saw.
The video is damning, as it stands now. The problem I have with all this, is that we have not heard the complete story yet. Do the French have an explanation? I'd like to hear it.
If the French don't have an explanation that is suitable, they are indeed in trouble on this one.
I believe the best course of action at this point is to alert FoxNews to this and demand that they get to the bottom of it. Only by raising the visibility of this video are we going to get a fair hearing on it.
I would suggest we each contact as many news orgs as we can asking why they haven't covered the story, and demand that they do.
If indeed there was no bonified reason for the actions of these troops, then charges should be leveled against the guilty parties.
As others have said, if U.S. troops were caught on tape doing what these French soldiers seem to have been doing, they would have been trashed unmercifly. And seemingly rightfully so at this point.
There is every indication that this was a senseless slaughter of unarmed civilian protestors. Something we may not have seen could have triggered it, but there's little doubt that the French responded with indiscriminate fire mowing down unarmed civilians.
The whole world is angry at the US for one of our Marines shooting a terrorist faking his death. In context, what we see here is something worse, by a factor approaching infinity.
I'm taking a lesson from this. You're a good model of what this forum is about.