It seems strange, in a week that has brought so much bloodshed to the people of Iraq, to find the death of a single European and the injury of three others so poignant. And yet I can’t help but feel overwhelmed with horror and anger at the sickening turn that Giuliana Sgrena’s story took earlier today.
CBC News: U.S. forces shoot just-freed Italian hostage, kill negotiator – Joy turned to horror in Italy on Friday when an Italian journalist who had been held hostage in Iraq was released, only to be shot by U.S. military forces at a checkpoint in Baghdad.
Partly it’s the sudden lurch from a rare sign of hope – especially on a day when the events in Alberta weigh so heavily – to another senseless, stupid tragedy. Today’s death recalls previous checkpoint killings all too vividly. And it raises the chilling prospect of troops firing – however inadvertently – on journalists.
But mostly, it’s the sheer incomprehensibility of it all. The world was watching. How could this happen?
