Wikileaks leaked video of Civilians killed in Baghdad - Full video

[Flyvåpnet]

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

sunshinepress  —  April 03, 2010  — Please note: This [above] is a full uncut version of the video primarily intended for research purposes. See ...

http://www.youtube.com/redirect?username=sunshinepress&q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5rXPrfnU3G0&video_id=is9sxRfU-ik&event=url_redirect&url_redirect=True&usg=asQ-It6pLGB5DpWhkZ99-ipfE9c=

... for a short and concise version with added context.

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Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths ocurred. Wikileaks released this video with transcripts and a package of supporting documents on April 5th 2010 on http://collateralmurder.com

:'(

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[Captn' Red]

This is some fucked up shit.

And it just shows the power of the internet.


They even opened fire at the van than came to help em, with two kids in it.

[Vertigo]

"chrisjhart221138   @A1dan0Neill  Sorry, I don't buy that. It does look like he had an RPG round that house corner, so that attack can be excused but I think it was a bad call shooting on the van. The capability of the helicopter far outmatched the van, and they had the guns trained on it. -If the people in the van pulled a gun they could have reacted in time without endangering themselves."

i believe this youtube comment roughly summarizes what i think.  Although that, whatever it was.  around the house corner, did indeed look like an RPG/or Bazooka.  Them opening fire before being fired upon themselves shoulda never happened.

And that mess with the van, that was horrible.  I hope the kids live.

Theres another strike against the american populace.

[0235]

has anyoe seen the film "battle for Haditha?" this is really simmilar to the film, which is based on a true story, and it just shows how different our culture is to their culture, and that carrying weapons to them is totaly normal, and they still dont understand that they cant

[Flyvåpnet]

These things happen in war.  It's inevitable that civilians will be killed.  A combat zone is a dangerous place for everyone who's there.  That's one of the reasons war is so stupid and why wars of aggression, such as the invasion of a sovereign nation which hadn't first made war against us, should be avoided at all costs.

In parts of the U.S., it's considered normal for civilians to carry firearms in public.  I think it's stupid, but that's just the way it is.  If those parts of the U.S. where packing firearms is acceptable were to become combat zones, gun-toting civilians would be killed by the hypothetical invading armed forces.

Killing civilians in war is wrong, period, yet they die by the thousands and tens of thousands.  Do the world's leaders care?  They cared once upon a time, but not anymore.  Wiping out entire populations via unethical and immoral "rules of war" has been the status quo ante since the 1700s.  The genocide perpetrated against Native American Indians springs to mind.  Killing non-combatants was the norm in ancient times as well, which you can plainly see by reading the Old Testament of the Bible.  There was an imperfect hiatus on the deliberate killing of civilians in war, which lasted for about 1500 years.

Then capitalists discovered lots of money could be made via manufacture of military equipment, rental of transportation systems, etc.  Soon politicians and heads of state were seeing things in a different light.  Money talks.  One needs lots of bombs and aircraft to destroy cities and their civilian populations.  The owners of Avro, which manufactured the Lancaster heavy bomber during the Second World War, didn't end up in the poor house.  Most of the aircrews ended up dead, though.

As is always the case, if blame for wrongdoing is to be allocated it will be focused upon those with the least power.  None of the scumbags at the Pentagon or in federal government who wrote leaky rules of engagement or bamboozling policies justifying torture will ever be brought to justice.  Plenty of low-ranking military personnel will bear that burden, as they bear the burden of carrying out the folly which is war.  The capitalists will laugh all the way to the bank.



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[Flyvåpnet]

Experts Explain Psychology of Iraq Airstrike on Video - NYTimes.com
Seemingly cruel chatter in a helicopter may reflect a wartime necessity to overcome inhibitions to kill.

What the article asserts is, I believe, true.  But its tone shows big-shot media of communication, the mouthpieces of power elites, are stunned at having been upstaged by WikiLeaks.



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[Flyvåpnet]

Here are more of my rantings and ravings, which you may pass over without fear of reprisal.  In regard to that video I just don't understand what the fuss is all about on the part of angry bureaucracies, "ordinary" citizens and politicians.

What do they think happens in war?  "Oh, people get hurt?  People die?  Imagine!  We don't want to know about that.  It's too unsettling.  It dishonors the troops."  Well, isn't that just too damn bad.  Those same ignoramuses who beat the war drums in 2003 don't want to see what their headlong rush to kill people has brought about.  As far as dishonoring military personnel goes, the biggest dishonor is the fact their nation doesn't see fit to re-institute conscription but chooses instead to send a relative handful of young men and women into a combat zone which requires ten times their number.

Those who support government policies should be willing to witness, in the clearest possible manner, the results of those policies.  If they can't, then they're nothing but a bunch of cowardly hypocrites.  When I returned from the Second Indochina War - a.k.a. the American War, a.k.a. the Viet Nam War - I was told nobody wanted to hear about what went on over there.  Oh?  Didn't they support continuation and escalation of that war via the ballot box?  Perhaps they became ashamed of what they'd supported.  I certainly hope so, because at least that demonstrates they're human.

This present crop of let's-go-to-war citizens apparently has no shame.  Anyway, when it comes to war I often reflect upon the following passage from Albert Camus' novel La Peste (Paris:  Librairie Gallimard, 1947).

When a war breaks out, people say: "It's too stupid; it can't last long." But though the war may well be "too stupid," that doesn't prevent its lasting. Stupidity has a knack of getting its way; as we should see if we were not always so much wrapped up in ourselves.

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[Captn' Red]

You're absolutely right Fly.

There's so many hypocrites out there. People just want to look the other way since it's too much to handle.
Kinda like the German population after WWII, they'd actually had to parade em through the concentration caps and show them the dead before they believed it.

And honestly, the only special thing about this is that it's actually caught on tape.

[Flyvåpnet]

Thanks for that, Red.  I guess what's at work in these cases is a combination of denial, fear and ignorance - usually in reverse order.  If more people would look at war squarely on, there would surely be less desire to support war.  But in a dictatorship, such as Hitler's, it doesn't matter what the average citizen wants.  You do what you're told or else men come at night and take you away.

Politicians make wars of aggression, such as Dubya's oil war, at the behest of power elites.  Then the gal or guy next door, who only wanted to lead a "normal" life, ends up dead or maimed thousands of miles from home.  For what?  So somebody can be re-elected?  So war profiteers can line their pockets?  I guess we humans are, in the main, pack animals who derive pleasure from sucking up to some "leader" and wrapping ourselves in tribal flags.



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[Orion]

I thought I'd link to this article that I just read about this. http://www.slate.com/id/2249999/ It talks about this tragedy and what could be done in the future to prevent this from happening.

[Flyvåpnet]

That's a very interesting and relevant article, Orion.  Thanks for the link!



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[Renato]

Watched the video, thats some nasty shit.

I've seen so many videos related to the war (both sides), all unedited and such. Just another example of why this war shouldn't have started in the first place.

[Flyvåpnet]

"Amen!" to that, Renato.



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