While your argument is better than pony boys it still has flaws.
We can definitely pick and choose with todays technology much more so than in wars past like Vietnam. Simply carrying something in your hands does not magically make them weapons. Some of them were and I'll agree that the reporter was doing what any other good journalist does in war and thats getting in the action. I'll grant you "collateral damage" happens in war and no you cannot remove it completely. Did you see the "insurgents" with the van? You know the one that stopped to help a wounded "insurgent"? What about the "insurgent" children? This is where the discretion goes out the window. Put yourself in their shoes in their country. To do this imagine it is China perusing our skies with gunships. Several "insurgents" had been killed and injured. You happen to see the aftermath, the blood, dismembered bodies and one lone man struggling for survival. You stop to help and maybe get him to a hospital. The "good guys" won't let that happen because you are helping the "enemy". Red China opens fire on you, your van and your children inside it. What recourse do you have? None. Its just a casualty of war right? Some wont get it until its on their own doorstep.
You're dreaming of a clean war which won't exist in our lifetime. I still stand that the first shoot in a wartime context was completely fine - they had no idea this guy was a journalist, there were confirmed weapons in the group he was with (including an RPG), and they took them down. In the aftermath from what I saw, the crew made another acceptable decision in real-time, without the luxury of magnified video. Clearly the crew did not see children in the front seat of the van. I don't expect our forces at war to let wounded enemies be rescued by non-allied forces.
I am glad we don't have to use the tactics of WW2 - carpet/fire bombing entire cities to ash, killing hundreds of thousands of non-combatants. But even today war is horrible which is why I strongly feel we should only go to war as an absolute last resort which is why Iraq as a whole is so horrendous. But once in that position, I expect our forces to use every advantage to come home alive.
When we're at open war with China, then yes them doing the same would be part of war. As would our opposing attempts to shoot every one of their gunships out of the sky and return the favor to their ground forces.