http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0 Here's the video. Right or wrong, justified or not you'd like to see a little more reason to "eliminate" 12 threats. The bottom line is it's f'cking war. If you don't want to get killed by the winner don't walk abound with weapons. And don't stand next to someone with a weapon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
That was sad and unfortunate. But that didn't happen because of incompetency, our troops are very well trained, very well equipped and are excellent at what they do. There were some times during that where I was very impressed by their accuracy and efficiency. I'd like to see the battles in that same area before this occurred. I think it would help to provide a more complete picture.
What disturbed me most was how eager they seemed to kill. This video will do nothing to help right America's image to the world, which has for years dissented this "war."
Nah. It's unfortunate but it's not inhuman. Those gun crews were responding to perceived and targeted threats in an actively hostile area. They weren't just firing randomly. I was sadden about the children getting shot too but I just don't know if there was a better way to handle that.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/36182090#36182090 "Do not strike anyone who has surrendered or out of combat due to sickness or wounds." That was in reference to when the people in the van showed up to aid the wounded. Yet they kept on firing. I call that inhuman.
I don't see anything particularly surprising about this video. It's very hard to ask people for ID when you are shooting them from a helicopter. barfo
At the beginning there was one man with a rifle and there was the photographer who was squatted down while adjusting or reloading his camera at the very edge of the building. Watch the very first part again. The photographer really did look like he was ducked around the corner of the building with a RPG.
When does hearing about the possibility of guys with weapons walking around justify firing at anyone you want? Even if those were enemies, since when are we allowed to shoot "medics" or people who don't aim back? And that children comment? Disgusting. The guys in this vid are probably working some low-level military job for the rest of their lives because an officer ordered them to shoot indiscriminately. Lose-lose situation for all. ALSO, the argument that "it's war, it happens" is based on absurd logic. If this were the case, then we might as well say that Al Qaeda was justified in bombing the twin towers because it's war and casualties are unfortunate. We might as well just nuke the goddamn Middle-East. We've been estranged with Israel for awhile now, Iran is a threat, too many problems in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc. Casualties will be suffered but as long as we take out the bastards and their ideals, we will have won. Actually, I figure members of Al Qaeda are hiding all over the world, so we might as well start bombing enemies in every other country as well. We could nuke our soil, that will take care of the Socialists at the very least.
And the terrorists have been known to take the very recently dead or the seriously injured, wire them with explosives and move them to where our troops or the Iraqi police will find them. If you've already been shot and are dying that's a pretty good time to decide to become a martyr/human bomb and try to take out some of the enemy with you. It wasn't as if our troops were just firing indiscriminately everywhere and they accidentally hit some people. They had reasons behind their targeting and were very efficient at eliminating those targets.
The guys at the 3:38 mark look like they're holding guns. The graphic nature of the video shocked me, but the actions of the pilots didn't. We need to get the fuck out of there, soon.
This is pretty damn telling...... to my untrained eye, I did not see any evidence of guns, but its also not unheard of for their citizens to carry. Also the Heli pilot said they were shooting? I don't know. I easily saw the camera and it did not look like a freakin' RPG.... I have a couple of friends that were in the Army, rolling on the tanks shooting the piss out of insurgents and possibly civvies as well. They're still trigger happy to this day, so I definitely feel for the innocent....big time. You'd think they'd want to come in for a closer look, they were at least a quarter mile or more a way..
If I wouldnt have been told those where cameras before the video, I would have assumed they had guns also. It might have been a good idea for the guys with the cameras to hold their cameras up when they saw the helicopter flying around them for a visual ID... especially when you are walking near bad guys with AK47's. The people who edited this video had the time etc. to look carefully at it over and over and examine every detail. Obviously the soldiers in the helicopter cant do that in the heat of the moment. I could never be soldier. I wouldt be able to deal with/handle stuff like that.