Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
Wikileaks has recently released a video taken from the on board camera of an Apache helicopter showing US soldiers firing on Iraqi civilians. I know ragezoners aren't big on reading threads so I'll sum it up briefly:
-US helicopter spots a group of around 11 people on the ground including world-renowned war photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen
-Gunner claims he can see weapons (It's actually photography equipment) and gunfire (there clearly isn't any)
-Troops open fire on the group, killing or wounding all of them.
-A few minutes later, a man drives by in a van. He gets out to assist Namir but is gunned dead. Both of his children in the car are wounded in the process.
-Soldiers laugh and pat themselves on the back
Video can be found here:
[nomedia]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is9sxRfU-ik[/nomedia]
This footage is not for the faint of heart. Remember that it basically depicts a dozen or so people being murdered.
The man who stops by with his van was Saleh Matasher Tomal, a father of four, who made a living renting out his mini van. At the time, he was taking his children to school. The soldiers involved were not punished.
News link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010...my-iraq-attack
And people criticise me for my 'fuck the military' attitude :rolleyes2:.
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Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
Quote:
The soldiers involved were not punished.
Of COURSE they weren't.
They have permission to engage with permission from a higher ranking officer, course with reasonable cause.
There is no reason whatsoever why US soldiers (Or any soldiers for that matter) will gang up on innocent civilians - there's no logic to it.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
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Originally Posted by
Surface
Of COURSE they weren't.
They have permission to engage with permission from a higher ranking officer, course with reasonable cause.
There is no reason whatsoever why US soldiers (Or any soldiers for that matter) will gang up on innocent civilians - there's no logic to it.
There was no reasonable cause whatsoever, what are you talking about? Did you even watch the video? The helicopter gunner was a bloodthirsty psychopath - just listen to what he says. "come on, let me shoot!" "all you gotta do is pick up a weapon [so I can shoot you]!" They were fucking enjoying it, it was fun and games.
Seriously, do you have any knowledge of US military history at all? All I'm going to tell you is look up the My Lai massacre, THEN you can come back and tell me about how 'logical' US soldiers are.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
That was bloody crazy! I didn't get to watch the whole thing yet but only the first part where they see the guy with the RPG.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
Thanks for sharing. I'm currently doing research on media and this is really helpful.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
I only watched the first 5 minutes, but I definitely saw the rifles and the RPG, and they were trying to hide them. They are occupying that country and they saw people will weapons, they did what they had to do.
Am i saying I condone it? No. But had that RPG been fired and had it hit them, that's maybe 5-6 Americans who have died and we now see it splashed across our newspapers and televisions. When they have no ground support and can only speculate what's going on in a hostile environment, they have to kill or be killed, especially when the individuals clearly have weapons.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
The part where your man is crawling, to how they responded to the Van is just sickening...
"... a child. Ah damn, oh well"
"ran over a body, oh well he's dead"
etc.
Total disregard for life or respecting the deceased, may they rot in hell those Soldiers. Bastards treat it like a game.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
not sure about it actually.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
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Originally Posted by
Daedius
The part where your man is crawling, to how they responded to the Van is just sickening...
Sickening for us, yes. But to be able to do the things they need to do, they have been conditioned to detach emotionally and to objectify the opponents. It sounds like they are playing an FPS game, because to them that's how they imagine it, to cope with the reality of what they are doing. You ever watched the SAW movies? Are those "victims" to blame because they are forced to kill someone to survive? Does that make them sick or twisted because they wanted to live? This is the EXACT same situation - kill or be killed.
Post-traumatic stress occurs for this exact reason. When they return to society they have an extremely hard time adjusting out of what they were trained to do and think. They also have trouble adjusting out of the lifestyle that anyone could be hiding a weapon and could be waiting to kill you.
Yes these videos are shocking, but have someone describe their military training in the US and you will see how normal people can become almost "blood thirsty". They are the way they were made, if you think millions of people join the army because they are sadists and like to see people dying, then you are extremely naive.
Without being in the same scenario or environment as them, we have absolutely no right to judge or condemn their actions. Especially when we are not even getting both sides of the story, but a "leaked and decrypted" video.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
What I do not get is why people get amazed over this. American soldiers kill people without a reason everyday. Is it more important cause it's on video? Do people really need proof?
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
They had no choice but fire those guys because one had an RPG and looked like he was going to use it. But then, they had no reason to fire. Especially since they did not know if there was any children around there, which there was. It's funny how the guy shooting doesn't care about the girl he shot.
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
Children of America will be pretty ashamed from what their soldiers did.
(From I had seen on the van part.)
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
Yet another reminder as to why everyone hates the American military when there are no repercussions from the stuff they do...
ie. covering up more murders:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88nBDGYeVY4"]YouTube- Bullets Removed To Cover-Up Murders In Afghanistan[/nomedia]
Crash
Re: Videos leaked of US troops firing on civilians and reporters in Iraq
Quote:
Originally Posted by
CrashOveride
Yet another reminder as to why everyone hates the American military when there are no repercussions from the stuff they do...
There are repercussions and that I can assure you.
The soldiers involved can not be punished as they were only following orders. To not do so would of resulted in insubordination and would of caught them a hell of a lot of trouble. Or dead (If the people had actually had weapons).
IF and that's a big if, and soldier shoots an unarmed civilian, the only person that can be accountable for it is the one that gave the OK. Because the soldier only does what the soldier is told to do.
Just like Rish said, it's merely a game to them. The game tells you to fire at said object, your ass fires at said object or you lose.
