# Natural Selection in Action **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 13, 2001, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-selection-in-action/93031 "2001-11-13T01:25:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RoboDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bbe5ce/32.png) [@RoboDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RoboDude)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-selection-in-action/93031/1 "2001-11-13T01:25:55Z")
I just heard about the three jounalists who were [killed](http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20011112/wl/attack_afghan_journalists_dc_2.html) by taliban thigs, and needless to say, my first reaction was “What were these people _thinking_?”. Of course, they probably weren’t. > [@](#): > > French radio reporters Johanne Sutton, 34, and Pierre Billaud, 31, and an unidentified male freelance journalist working for the German magazine Stern had been riding on the roof of an armored personnel carrier when it came under fire. > [@](#): > > ``All three of us were on the back of the APC and we were joking about dragging along our interpreter, who was a bit reluctant about it,’’ said French radio reporter Veronique Rebeyrotte, who was with Sutton and Billaud. > > ``We never thought we would be taking a risk,’’ she said. Well, gee. Who’d have thought that there might be any danger to riding **ON THE ROOF** of a fucking **MILITARY VEHICLE** in the middle of a fucking **WAR ZONE**? I suppose this was all just a freak accident, wasn’t it? I mean, how could it ever have occured to them that the Taliban would probably be royally pissed that the Northern Alliance just captured a city from them, and that they have as much respect for human life other than their own as the ebola virus? :rolleyes: What’s wrong with these people? I realize that going into war zones isn’t exactly routine for most journalists, but it seems that common sense would dictate that: a. Merely by crossing the border into Afghanistan, one is taking a serious risk. b. One shouldn’t accept rides from combatants unless there’s room **INSIDE** the vehicle. Any jounalist who is too fuckin’ stupid to grasp these simple concepts shouldn’t be sent anywhere more dangerous than Disney World. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-selection-in-action/93031/2 "2001-11-13T01:54:24Z")
They were just trying to do their job, and ended up getting killed over it. Would it kill you to show a little respect for those who lost their lives ? ---
**Author:** ![Tricia\_Valentine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9a140/32.png) [@Tricia\_Valentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tricia_Valentine)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-selection-in-action/93031/3 "2001-11-13T02:53:00Z")
Um, I had a friend die surfing on the back of a car. I really miss him, But Damn, was that a stupid thing to do. Good kid, too. Didn’t even WANT to go on spring break because of all the sex and drinking. Same concept here. I respect them for doing what they did, but DAMN was that a stupid idea! Couldn’t they use their brains, instead of becoming moving targets?? ~C~ ---
**Author:** ![Trucido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea5d25/32.png) [@Trucido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trucido)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-selection-in-action/93031/4 "2001-11-13T03:50:22Z")
APCs carry all that lovely armor for a reason. You’re supposed to stay behind it. To ask soldiers in war where uniforms are nonexistent to stop and consider whether or not someone riding on an armored vehicle is a journalist is ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-selection-in-action/93031/5 "2001-11-13T04:08:41Z")
I remember reading a piece by a local columnist in Ohio who knew a rather prominent journalist who’d just been killed in some Mid-East nation by people who _knew_ the guy was a reporter and not a soldier. According to him, he’d asked the guy, back when they were in college, why he chose a form of journalism that could possibly put him in the same situation that later killed him. His response? “Its better than being killed by a milk truck when you’re trying to cross the street.” These guys most likely knew that they were going to be putting their lives in danger, but they _chose_ to put themselves in danger anyway. That takes balls in my book. In any case, the fact that they were journalists and not soldiers might have gotten them killed anyways. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-selection-in-action/93031/6 "2001-11-13T05:17:48Z")
> [@](#): > > One shouldn’t accept rides from combatants unless there’s room INSIDE the vehicle. > [@](#): > > APCs carry all that lovely armor for a reason. You’re supposed to stay behind it. A couple things. If [this](http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m113.htm) or [this](http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/row/btr-60.htm) is what they were riding on, there’s a limited amount of room inside (capacity 13 or 14), so they may not have been able to sit inside. It looks like a tank with a flat top, not a “troop transport, seats 30” type of truck. And if you’re in a war zone, and you wanna make tracks outta there, you grab whatever ride you can, whether it has enough seat belts for everyone or not. The military can’t be expected to bump personnel so journalists can ride inside behind the nice armor. Also, they were killed because the APC stopped suddenly to do a 180 to avoid an ambush, and they fell off, and were then killed by the ambushers when the APC left them behind. > [@](#): > > Rebeyrotte and another journalist who was present, Paul McGeough of the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper, said Taliban forces waiting in ambush opened fire on the vehicle at close range with semi-automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. > > Sutton, Billaud and the Stern journalist tumbled off the roof of the APC when it braked suddenly and turned back. > > ``Three of us clung on for grim death and we survived,’’ McGeough reported. [http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/11/12/ret.afghan.journalists/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/central/11/12/ret.afghan.journalists/index.html) > [@](#): > > The alliance forces thought this was because they had overcome the Taliban forces. Some got off the APC to claim an enemy trench, when Taliban forces fired several rocket-propelled grenades from three different directions, McGeough said. > > “Those who managed to stay on the machine survived, those who jumped or fell died,” he said. So maybe the moral here is, “if you’re going to ride on top, get a really good grip”? ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2001, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/natural-selection-in-action/93031/7 "2001-11-13T05:19:38Z")
whoops, left out–Evidently there were Alliance soldiers riding on top, too.