"Collateral Murder" - US Soldiers kill civilians/journalists in Iraq

[XanBcoo]

http://collateralmurder.org/

5th April 2010 10:44 EST WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff.

Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

40 minute full, unedited video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is9sxRfU-ik

Interview with the children from the van: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw_5tZqzwXg

Enhanced video of the targets: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oOPB0jenpQ

MSNBC interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-FvR...eature=related

~'Cause I'm prouuuud to be an Americaaaaaan~

[Pandadice]

war..... is bad?

old news dog. I watched Gen Kill back in 08

[XanBcoo]

It's more that it's happening and being covered up. Wikileaks had to fight pretty hard to get a hold of that video.

I'm also interested to see how the US media will ignore this.

Edit: In any case, I don't care how much it happens, murdering civilians and journalists is indefensible.

[Carnage]

Yeah, fuck the military

[Assassin]

That right there is how 'terrorists' are born.

[Animeniax]

You guys are being pretty hard on our men in uniform. Consider the conditions under which they are placed, and ask yourself how you'd react in a similar situation. That is, if they put you in a badass Apache attack helicopter and green-lighted you to unload on some muthafuckas, you'd go crazy with the cheesewhiz and see how many points you could score. Each terrorist is 10 pts, each non-White is 5.

All kidding aside, a lot of soldiers are trigger happy cowboys looking to increase their kill totals. But they are also under extreme conditions, constantly under duress and with their lives at risk. In those circumstances, you can see why they'd be a little trigger happy.

[Pandadice]

You guys are being pretty hard on our men in uniform. Consider the conditions under which they are placed, and ask yourself how you'd react in a similar situation. That is, if they put you in a badass Apache attack helicopter and green-lighted you to unload on some muthafuckas, you'd go crazy with the cheesewhiz and see how many points you could score. Each terrorist is 10 pts, each non-White is 5.

All kidding aside, a lot of soldiers are trigger happy cowboys looking to increase their kill totals. But they are also under extreme conditions, constantly under duress and with their lives at risk. In those circumstances, you can see why they'd be a little trigger happy.

Like I said.. watched Gen Kill back in 08 <.<.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsa383a-nuQ

[Sapphire]

Yeah, fuck the military

More like the government as a whole, the same person who authorizes this is the same person who millions of people worship because of "free" healthcare.

[XanBcoo]

You guys are being pretty hard on our men in uniform. Consider the conditions under which they are placed, and ask yourself how you'd react in a similar situation. That is, if they put you in a badass Apache attack helicopter and green-lighted you to unload on some muthafuckas, you'd go crazy with the cheesewhiz and see how many points you could score. Each terrorist is 10 pts, each non-White is 5.

All kidding aside, a lot of soldiers are trigger happy cowboys looking to increase their kill totals. But they are also under extreme conditions, constantly under duress and with their lives at risk. In those circumstances, you can see why they'd be a little trigger happy.

No man. That doesn't excuse it.

But it's a nice little mental exercise trying to understand why someone would beg to open fire on a civilian van trying to help wounded human beings, and then actually do so. That's the definition of Psychopathy and I often wonder what it must be like.

The worst part is that this behavior is trained.

[The Heretic Azazel]

That right there is how 'terrorists' are born.

There were terrorists before this war started, although I agree this sort of thing doesn't help.

I won't assume to know what it's like because I've never been there, but it's really discouraging to see soldiers gleefully picking off people, that action to me suggests a wanton disregard for human life. I'll always support our troops up to a point but they are supposed to hold this country to a higher standard.

[Pandadice]

More like the government as a whole, the same person who authorizes this is the same person who millions of people worship because of "free" healthcare.

oh, right. because this didn't take place in 2007...

[XanBcoo]

oh, right. because this didn't take place in 2007...

And Obama didn't approve sending 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan...

There were terrorists before this war started, although I agree this sort of thing doesn't help.

Why did those terrorists become terrorists? It's a chicken and egg situation.

[Carnage]

There were terrorists before this war started, although I agree this sort of thing doesn't help.

Yes but its a fact that there's been a sharp rise in terrorist recruitment because of the war in Iraq. If anything things like this really does give them incentive to fight what seems like the "occupation".

[Kraco]

All kidding aside, a lot of soldiers are trigger happy cowboys looking to increase their kill totals.

I've to say I was never that trigger happy even when flying an Apache in Operation Flashpoint or ArmA. It felt strange to watch somebody being so trigger happy in RL. There was no sense of danger there at all. The helicopter leisurely circled the place several times and not one bullet, that I noticed, was shot at them.

But then again, people die in a war. It wouldn't be a war otherwise.

[Assertn]

Ever seen Hurt Locker? Imagine a whole year of that every day and see if it doesn't make you a little edgy. I'm surprised there aren't more cases of soldiers just open-firing on civilians.

[XanBcoo]

You don't invade a country, start murdering innocent human beings, and then claim PTSD and wave away the innocent deaths as "casualties of war".

This kind of thing probably does go on all the time, and no one is held accountable for it. There is no crime in the world that goes completely unpunished because your defense is "Well, I didn't mean to..."

[Dark Dragon]

I think it's easy to judge people and claim anything when you're not in their shoes.
The human mind is rather fragile, and it doesn't take much before your base instinct take over. Soldier face constant danger and stress, so it's not hard to see why they might already on edge. It's probably much harder to conjure up sympathy when you know that you could die at any moment.

Don't get me wrong, i'm not excusing this kind of behavior. These guys should be held responsible for their actions. What they did was wrong and they deserve to be punish for it. I just don't think that civilians who are living comfortable peaceful lives are in a position to judge these guys.

[Assassin]

Then who should? by that logic no one can ever judge anyone else because you haven't walked in their shoes. Contrary to popular belief, certain things in this world are as simple as right and wrong, and firing on unarmed individuals trying to save someones life falls in the latter category.

As for the PTSD issue, i can begrudgingly buy it for troops on the ground in a hotzone, but there's no way you can use the 'on edge' excuse when you're sitting in a military helicopter 30 feet in the air. These guys dont exactly switch jobs every other day....a chopper pilot/gunner has always been a chopper pilot/gunner, so you can't claim stress due to constant exposure to combat.

[animus]

Just because they're in the air, doesn't mean they're completely oblivious to danger.

[XanBcoo]

Just because they're in the air, doesn't mean they're completely oblivious to danger.

Christ. They were inside a helicopter hovering just under 2 miles away, circling non-aggressive civilians and journalists several times before they opened fire on them, killing them. They did this because they thought they had guns.

Then when the wounded photographer crawled around on the ground, the gunner begged to shoot him.

Then they shot the civilian van filled with 2 small children and killed the father who stopped in a vein attempt to help the wounded. Once again, the gunner begged to shoot these people, and did.

Then they killed or injured at least 3 more completely oblivious people after that out of complete negligence.

Why the fuck are some of you trying to justify this?? There's no situation stressful enough that would warrant the murder of so many innocent people. You can't wave this away because "you don't know what it's like". This is murder on an institutional level and it's been covered up by the government. How complacent do you have to be to pretend this isn't wrong?

I just don't think that civilians who are living comfortable peaceful lives are in a position to judge these guys.

Similarly, you are in no place to ignore the fact that a bunch of people got away with murder. I don't care how blase you want to appear on the internet, this is a crime and "war is hell" is a lazy and ridiculous defense.

Edit: That wasn't a knock at you, Dark Dragon, I'm just saying.

Anyway, here's a blog post by a guy who's "been in their shoes" and agrees these guys are nutcases: http://blog.ajmartinez.com/2010/04/0...ateral-murder/