This footage comes from a site known as Wikileaks. When you watch it you will see that it is pretty self explanatory. You might want to take a moment afterward to collect yourself, it is quite horrific.
Huffington Post has more on this story.
Disgusting. The pilot and the others should be on trial for murder.
ReplyDeleteGive an American kid a gun and he'll find any excuse to use it.
ReplyDeleteDear God, another example of why we are so hated.
ReplyDeleteThat is one of the worst things that I have ever seen. They seemed to be enjoying it a bit too much.
ReplyDeleteHow disgusting, it just makes you want to cry.
I just finished watching this, and my stomach is in knots. There is no excuse for what we saw on this video. None whatsoever! I agree with Sunshine 1970. This is sick!
ReplyDeleteso did the guys in the video have ak47's and a rpg?
ReplyDeleteI could not watch the whole thing I could not bear it as I do not have the courage to do it. I know that this same sort of story is replicated is many ways over the last several years and Bush/Cheney/Rove and the rest of their kool-aid guzzling bunch have no souls. God save us from their sins. God save our children from their sins. My heart is heavy with tears..........
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this. It was hard to watch, but necessary.
ReplyDeleteHow likely is it that the actions we see here are an anomaly? Was this an horrific mistake or a strategy? Is our military recruiting cold-blooded killers or creating them? The video raises so many questions.
ReplyDeleteI am horrified, disgusted, saddened, angered.
We need to start demanding to end the war in Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteI have never, ever understood why people like Palin will call all troops heros - ask anyone who has served in any branch of our military and each one will be able to name at least one S-O-B with a bloodthirsty love of slaughter.
Mind you, most are decent, but we have to remember that being a soldier, sailor, pilot or marine does not make you a perfect person and we have to have the courage to prosecute those who cross a moral line because doing so will make the rest of the military better. They don't want to serve with the bad apples or the guys who have bad judgment because those are just as likely to turn on the troops they serve with as anything just because they lack discipline, are amoral, or just have anger management problems.
Time to review a lot of things - from the war itself, to how we train and monitor our troops. Their safety and ours is dependent upon their reputation and ability to follow the law.
You may want to correct your headline. It appears this was in Baghdad not Afghanistan.
ReplyDeletehttp://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_iraq_shooting
This was Iraq not Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anonymous 3:40. I had been reading news about Afghanistan all morning and when I saw the video on MSNBC I must have been kind of stuck on that subject.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to take a flying leap here and assume that Track Palin is not the only kid who enlisted as a Plea Deal to avoid jail.
ReplyDeletethe quality of the people joining the military is not the only problem.
We live in a society that defines "successful" as a person who other cultures would deem pathological. American military are very easily brainwashed and desensitized, and the American public is very easily propagandized
these guys in the helicopter probably thought they were just playing another video game.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to hear the audio of the klan in the chopper with Sarah on her next wolf hunt.
i cant even begin to write what i am thinking ---
ReplyDeleteis this brave...??? Safe in a helicopter shooting people who are, as far as you know, completely innocent.....and laughing....and wanting to shoot them.
ReplyDeleteI am sick to my stomach.
This is what the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld administration created. Thank the boys for the "pauper" army that they created and institutionalized. First step force poor people to produce children that they can't support i.e. limit birth control and ending inappropriate preganacies including those that are the result of rape and incest or that threaten the life of the mother as well as the mistakes that occur when the only form of birth control is the rhythm; second step destroy the public education system that made the middle class of the United States ( and the country as a whole the great nation that the USA once was)thus trapping those less fortunate in a life of servitude to the military industrial complex. Something that I call "cannon foder" again for the militaty industial complex and - this is the important part - for the profit of the elite group of American socity that profit from these ventures. Gee, now who would that be??? Well, here is your first clue folks: it is not you and I. It is the families and individuals that have a long history of profiting from selling arms and essentially "war manogoring" at the expense of those less fortunate. For those of you not familiar with history because you were unable to be part of the public education system. This was once called serfdom. Then it was called slavery. It is also known as an oligarchy. It is not a demoracy.
ReplyDeleteAnd we wonder why we are TOTALLY DESPISED in the Middle East? If this video doesn't provide a clue, nothing will. The warning you provided was 'too accurate' in that it truly was HORRIFIC to watch knowing that INNOCENT people were killed for no reason other than that they were 'MOVING'. It makes me sick to my stomach.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. made the statement that they 'engaged in war' essentially stating that is all we need to know, they are NOT GUILTY and we are supposed that because it is war. However, it appears they don't give a damn if we concur or not with their statement. This entire war is WRONG [Iraq has been wrong since it's onset] and we need to get the hell out. Furthermore, Karzi, President Afghanistan, has been vacillating in his statements to the media calling us 'invaders in his country' which should tell us how he 'honestly feels'. He does not want us there and he cannot be trusted to help us despite him asking for our help, which only further tells us we need to leave the ME immediately.
Why is Obama continuing his pursuit when we have already heard from McChrystal that many innocents have been killed needlessly. It appears that this will NEVER END unless we FORCE our government to stop. We need to march on DC just like we did for Viet Nam.
I agree with Anon @ 8:02 above and Kellygirl.
Disparaged
I had been trying to find this video and I'm kinda sorry I did. It is horrible and made me cry and scream and pound my fists. It exemplifies why urban warfare is such a complicated Hell. Even tho' it appears that these guys were just out for a Sunday fly to do some target practice; they were well-trained and surely had a mission, tho' I know not what it was. Having lost friends in Mogadishu, I can see why the choppers would've been wary. Black Hawk Down is a fairly accurate portrayal of this type of warfare, I only saw it for the first time last week. The insanity arises when you know that these troops in 2007, had the time and technology to confirm whether it was an RPG. In the end, how can we charge with murder those we have sanctioned to commit it?
ReplyDeleteAs for me, I write every week to Congress and Obama to get the hell out. I would walk a protest line if I could find one. We can not clean up Bush's war and the leaders in Afghanistan are now threatening to go Taliban? Holy Crap! What's the point?
My sadness for the families victimized by friendly fire or collateral damage is overwhelming. So senseless. “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” - Plato