Wikileaks Releases Video Depicting US Military Killing Dozen Iraqis Including Two Reuters Employees

[Drex]

...as if the American army - THE strongest army on the planet - was just VISITING Iraq. Seeing the museums. Tasting fine Iraqi cuisine.

Doesn't matter what they're there for. They are there, surrounded by people who want them dead. Being a part of the strongest army doesn't mean much to a single soldier - he'll still be shot and killed if he isn't ridiculously cautious.

You seem to be angry at the soldiers. I don't really see why. They are following orders and avoiding the reality of what they are being ordered to do, because most human minds fall apart in war zones if they even consider the implications of the lives they're taking. All they can think about is their friends (brothers, really) on the ground who are being ordered into X building or Y street, and doing what they can to keep those guys alive from above. If there's someone armed on the street and they can take that person out before he gets a shot at an american soldier, they are going to take it. Sympathetic soldiers get bullets in the heart.

What about the Islamists? The people who are preyed on by the Islamists? The working-class types too?

The ones acting innocent and not-suspicious-at-all until they pull out a concealed weapon and kill whoever they can before they are gunned down? The ones with bombs strapped to them? Or the ones planting mines that blow up and take out our soldiers? It's not a one-way war. We pushed, they push back, and you just want all our soldiers to lay down on the ground and say "alright bro put one between my eyes"? Or are you taking out your anger towards the government on the guys doing what they're told because they think it's best for everyone back home?


And it's pretty obvious why they fired on the van. They just shot a group of guys who had AK47s, and as far as they knew, an RPG. Some unmarked van comes and starts grabbing all the bodies and supplies. That van is now just as dangerous as the first batch they gunned down. Open fire. Did you see the kids in the van? I mean before the edited version that zooms in on them with a big white arrow that says KIDS? I didn't. In fact, I bet no one did, because otherwise they wouldn't need a second, zoomed in, labeled version of the video to show the kids in the van.

[Chun Liroy]

Can we just agree to blame bush?

[Rhinox]

Bush is gone. These are Obama's wars now.

[Mizango]

*Führer Obama.

[Mizango]

Bush is gone. These are Obama's wars now.

Exactly haha

[Chun Liroy]

Bush is gone. These are Obama's wars now.

Gotta make up for lack of Leif eh.

[*Shinzon*]

The van showed up AFTER THE environment got hostile. The environment got hostile because the soldiers began shooting at EVERYTHING.

They van was not armed with laser beams on the top. Klingons didn't jump out the sliding door w/ rocket launchers. You expect everyone in an occupied country to not drive cars around their own country? Where in Iraq is there not hostile territory? The Green Zone? Where WE park ourselves?

The people who came out of that van were picking up a guy who was crawling as he died. A guy who BTW was holding a camera. You can tell it's a camera or video camera in the clip.

I understand that, but again. They don't know he's not part of the group carrying weapons. He was in such close proximity to the men who were armed they they could not be expected to differentiate who is who. They didn't seem hostile to him, would indicate some kind of relationship at first glance. Yeah he might have not been armed to start, but whats to stop a wounded man from picking up a weapon?

You're looking at this through the wrong scope. You're still under the assumption that these soldiers knew the identity of these men before engaging them. They weren't. You don't know the context of the operation. You don't even know what you are actually looking at. All you know right now is that you're looking at collateral damage of an armed operation by US forces. You can't judge a situation with no facts. For all you know they could be picking the dude and have weapons inside the van that they will use to kill your guys on the ground.

How do you know that these individuals weren't already engaged with US troops before this gun run began?

@Miz I wouldn't compare it because it's not nearly the same kind of event. If you compare the whole war to 9/11 then yea you've got merit behind, and I wouldn't argue. But you're implying that just because of who these people are and where they are they were automatically targets of an armed chopper. As mentioned above you don't know the facts, how can you judge the situation. Being emotionally outraged is acceptable. Using this outrage as a basis for an argument isn't.

Edit as to not double post:

Yes. Yes seriously? At that point why are they still there? they were obviously trying to pull the bodies in the van. What do they have a FUCKING CORPSE LAUNCHER?

This shit wouldn't fly with any other country but with us. How exactly are we suppose to gain the trust of people if we don't exactly verify who the fuck we kill.

when we do shit like this in Iraq and shit like this in afghanistan no wonder we are hated all over the fucking planet.

What the fuck are you even talking about? It looks the same no matter what fucking country it is. Can you tell what race, ethnicity, religious orientation these men are based on a black and white video from hundreds of feet away? Ignore the fact that you know where this event took place; then begin your analysis of the video from the pilot's perspective. You have troops on the ground engaged in an operation and possibly already engaged with hostile targets. What exactly did these men in the bird do wrong? Once again you don't know what the fuck is going on in this particular situation.

[Maurauc]

Even if they did have weapons, the soldiers took so much glee in killing these guys that it's just sickening even listening to them. Example: "Haha I think I just ran over a body".

And they said they were taking small arms fire too? BS. Where was that in the video?



Pic of what the guy was taking with his camera round the corner.
http://i41.tinypic.com/1zmh4z9.jpg

[Rhinox]

Gotta make up for lack of Leif eh.

Is Vietnam remembered to have been JFK's war or LBJ/Nixon's war?

[Takedown3]

dont let firas near this thread, he's gonna go WTC on us.

[Drex]

This wouldnt have happened if he owned a gun.

Actually it probably wouldn't have happened if he didn't own a gun

oh shit jokes about dead people on bg, call in the PC squad, this has never happened before

[Rhinox]

Except not all of them had guns. But you're right the filthy 'sand niggers' had it coming.

[Chun Liroy]

Is Vietnam remembered to have been JFK's war or LBJ/Nixon's war?

Fair enough, except It lasted for 10s of years after JFK was assassinated, if Obama miraculously ends the war in a reasonable amount of time I don't see why this would considered Bush's war if it lasted for 7 years under his presidency and he began it compared to say 4 years under Obama.

[6souls]

A...normal ambulance wouldn't hit a body laying on the ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_138p6uzhUk

going to hell, etc., etc.

I do find this all sick, but that clip was my first thought when reading this.

[Therin]

Awesome video, would watch again.

[Rhinox]

Neither war is going to end in 3 nor 7 years no matter what Obama says.


We are an Imperialist nation and we are going to have our military bases there from now til at least our lifetime.

[Weltall]

ROFL @ MADDEN

[Drex]

Except not all of them had guns. But you're right the filthy 'sand niggers' had it coming.

2 of them had AK47s they were swinging around in broad daylight, and 2 of them had bundles that looked like RPGs. The other 2 guys are hanging out with a bunch of armed guys in the middle of a warring country. It doesn't take a great leap of logic to assume they are all armed and 2 of them are just concealing it. You can't play the innocent civilian bystander card when you are surrounded by guys wielding AK47s and get shot.

No one in Iraq should have a gun. For no reason. Just accept that your country has been invaded and put your trust in the US government and military who love Arabs and Muslims.

A good try at a strawman, but people in Iraq can do whatever they want. It's pretty stupid to walk down the street in a warring country with an AK47 and expect the enemy to not react, though. If I walked through harlem in a KKK outfit, would you be outraged when I got fucked up?

[Therin]

In a battle situation, you have a split second to make a decision. We have years to watch and rewatch the film, but they have seconds. Once the moment is passed, they can't rewind - that moment is gone.

I don't blame them for what happened. Sucks for the kids, but oh well.

Video was awesome though.

[BadKarma]

Sadly I am not offended by this.

I watched a few times.