Collateral Murder

[vashti]

I agree that in a couple of minutes they look like weapons, but they can also look like lots of things with a bit of imagination... soldiers should double check before killing.

And about leaving the kids at home.. if a war starts and your neighborhood becomes a warzone, you may have no option but to take the kids to that warzone.

Maybe, but since I tend towards always expecting the worst possible outcome, I would be too paranoid to allow my kid to follow around a bunch of men carrying what could easily be mistaken for weapons. This isn't the first time this mistake has been made.

[the_robot]

Maybe, but since I tend towards always expecting the worst possible outcome, I would be too paranoid to allow my kid to follow around a bunch of men carrying what could easily be mistaken for weapons. This isn't the first time this mistake has been made.

the kids weren't following men who had anything that looked like weapons, they were in that car/truck that picked up the agonizing man...

[Petit Papillon]

The worst on this video is when they came with a car to pick up a dying man ,with hope they could help him and they get killed like rabbits ... It was obvious they came to pick up the body and not the guns... Decision about firing the second time was really really wrong and without any reason...

[vashti]

ahh... so sad.

[Petit Papillon]

Yes, it is sad :/ I wish people wouldn't kill each other. Not just on the war, but everywhere ... There should be no reason to kill...

[Petit Papillon]

i wanted to post in the Off Topic

Done done

[Sonrisa]

i honestly didn't see anything looking like weapons, i could clearly see it was cameras. i am sure the guys would have had a clearer view of what it was.

[doppelgaenger]

I hate the war. It is so immoral. Nothing will be justified in the end.

[Cbrider]

It's amazing the lengths to which the human mind will rationalize it's own Nation State's depravity. ^^^

(until the choppers are police, the city American, and the victims in the wrong place at the wrong time....because, hey.. this is a war. People get killed. It's a hot zone... they were carrying bags over their shoulders. They looked like drug dealers. They shouldn't leave their houses if they don't want to be shot up. Their fault.)


Utterly amazing, Cbrider.

You don't understand what war is or what it means.

People seem to think that we live in this big happy world and are completely unaware of the carnage that takes place to ensure the survival and rise of each other. Are you honestly so naive to think that this kind of stuff doesn't happen day in and day out all over the world?

I'm not rationalizing anything, I don't have to, it is war. There are no laws, simply guidelines which we try to adhere to, but it doesn't always happen. Innocent people get killed for many reasons, but it is one of the well known consequences when powers collide.

You all drive around with Coexist bumper stickers on your cars and badmouth your governments when they make the decision to exercise their power. Yet, you get up every morning, go to work, choose where you want to eat, freely roam the web and watch whatever t.v. show you want.....any idea why you can do that everyday? Freedom isn't a right, its a privilege that requires bloodshed to attain, but some people can't handle the brutal reality of it all.

You can be on the offensive and protect yourself from those in the world that aren't fond of you, or you can sit on cruise control and hope everyone gets along. We are in the full swing nuclear weapons age, we don't have the luxury of waiting and watching. There are multiple nuclear powers in the world that have the ability to drop a warhead anywhere on the face of the earth, and some of them don't like us.

So yes, in the end innocent people were killed, its going to happen and it happened to be caught on video. It happens everyday. Call me what you want, believe I am a truly heartless person or what have you, I am actually rather kind and compassionate - I just choose not to turn a blind eye to the real world and accept that these things happen in order to maintain the big picture.

There sure are a lot of you who can decipher a camera bag from a weapon on a thermal imaging camera. Maybe we have a pack of future Apache weapon platform operators in our presence?

That said, I still respect everyone's individual opinion

[Mish]

I wish people in a war zone would leave their kids at home.

But that's the thing, they weren't in a warzone, they were in the city. It was in a metropolitan area in someone's neighborhood, not too dissimilar from the one where you live.

Those people who got murdered in cold blood could have just as easily been people we know. Those things said by the gunner "Come on pick up the weapon", "Can I engage them!" sounds like they were itching for a kill. Even if some of the bodyguards of the journalist were carrying weapons, the shooting of the van trying to help the wounded was completely un called for, against ROE and would constitute a war crime.

[Doc Durian]

Cbrider is up to his stirring again. lol

[doppelgaenger]

I might be going to the Middle East for Summer vacation again.

[Mish]

The most disturbing thing I found was the army response to the incident:

“There is no question that coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force,” said Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl, a spokesman for the multinational forces in Baghdad. The American military said in a statement late Thursday that 11 people had been killed: nine insurgents and two civilians. According to the statement, American troops were conducting a raid when they were hit by small-arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades. In the ensuing fight, the statement said, the two Reuters employees and nine insurgents were killed.

Not only the perpetrators weren't prosecuted, but the military made insurgents out of civilians to sell how great of a job they are doing. Reuters tried unsuccessfully for 2 years to get the chopper video from the army to find out what happened to their staff under the freedom of information act. It took a whistleblower from the inside to smuggle it in to wikileaks for the public to find out the truth. All of this shows how easily the military can operate without any impunity. Tomorrow your sunny neighbourhood could become a "warzone" and suddenly you will become an insurgent when you get in the way of an army bullet. This issue is not just about some distant war in Iraq, it's about basic human rights.

[Cbrider]

Cbrider is up to his stirring again. lol

Haha, yeah I tend to do that, but what I posted here is my true stance on it all.

The world is a ruthless place. Kill or be killed.

[Mish]

Haha, yeah I tend to do that, but what I posted here is my true stance on it all.

The world is a ruthless place. Kill or be killed.

Which translates to = agents of you government kill innocent people and when their senior officials find out instead of punishing the offenders they cover up the truth, and that doesn't worry you in the slightest because the world is a ruthless place. Unless it happens to you. In which case you will worry, but it will be too late to do anything about it.

Fine, as long as you are aware of that and that's okay for you.