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Collateral Murder: Wikileaks releases video of a dozen civilian murders
Wikieaks has been preparing the release of this video for a while apparently. A coverup of the death of two reuters reporters, and civilians including 2 children. None of the mainstream media except aljazeera and BBC have reported it as of yet. There's also been reported attempts of coverups by US intelligence. What do you think?
Link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0&feature=player_embedded
Link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0&feature=player_embedded
Comments
Getting back to the video, it is really irritating and disgraceful to see that the mouthpiece of the so called 'democracy' carries out such horrendous cover up and again, claims that the victims were Iraqi 'insurgents'. Have you ever asked yourself, how many such incidents happen everyday and no one reports them? And when Aljazeera tries to uncover such barbaric incidents, it is labeled as the channel of terrorists. Doesn't that go along with the speech of Bush in 2002, when he said, "You are either with us or with the terrorists". So, do I watch Fox or CNN that basically report neutered news and fuel racial hatred among their news consumers?
So, do I listen to the guy who is preaching freedom and democracy as the key to liberation and yet, creating orphans and widows?
Do we just become blind followers and believer when there is nothing to believe? Let us think twice....
i think americans will just about call everyone a terrorist or supporters of terrorism if they resist american imperialism.. it's a term that's been excessively abused and popularized by the media.. and bush (both senior and junior) definitely brought a whole new meaning to the word..=)
the US intelligence are notorious in executing cover ups and making sure stuff like this never get to see american daylight.. check out omar torrijos.. the rising leader in panama before he was assassinated by the US intelligence because he refused to hand over panama canal to the americans who wanted control over the waterways.. blatant suppression..=s
At least I am not the only one who thinks US imperialism controls the world, and going against their interest may cost your live.
It is well known that any resistence to the american domination results in the so-to-speak flexing of their muscles. It is rather unfortunate that they've built up such an ego, that the only thing that could knock them off the high horse is by a massively traumatic event.
The incident, honestly, is less disturbing than the cover-up of the incident. In war, these things happen, and if you think that the US is the only side creating orphans, even Iraqi orphans, you should really do more of this "reading" you've been talking about. Rather, the really distressing thing here is how the military tried to rejigger the whole situation into some sort of tactical victory with a small, unavoidable cost in collateral damage, rather than admit that it was what it was: a colossal cluster-fuck that resulted in the senseless slaughtering of almost a dozen innocents. Their dishonestly here calls into question every other report they have made, and will make, which is not only terrifying, but also unfair to the soldiers who have not been involved in anything close to war-crimes.
Without any experience in a military gunship (besides call of duty haha), its hard to be unbiased about the whole situation. Some people are saying that it was obviously not an rpg the guy was holding. Maybe the initial shooting was done with honest intentions (protecting the nearby convoy), but the second attack were questionable to say the least. The thing that got to me the most was when the gunship pilot said you shouldn't bring the kids to the battle. There was no battle at all, and it's kind of sad that these guys will say anything to justify their actions and to appease their conscious.
There's also the arguments that the AK47's were not reason enough for the pilots to engage. Armed civilians are probably something that is very common in areas like new baghdad in modern day Iraq. In the end, its all a matter of opinion and POV, but the Americans need to heckle the fuck out of their government and get to the bottom of this.
then again.. perhaps this is wishful thinking on my part..
Iraq is the less developed and less privileged country in comparison to the states.. they don't need further victimization or invasion from a foreign country.. i just think that if the US are stepping in with the intention of helping to ease the conflict.. then they must tread carefully as a 3rd party and foreign aid.. especially when they're dealing with the internal affairs of another country and is probably unaware of the underlying causes and political rifts at play.. they're there to help solve problems.. not to create more.. and what they're doing here in this video falls short of this objective...=\
BTW, I really liked your insight into the whole dilemma of this fucked up world, monopolized by US corporations. "Enlightened?" Not really, I meant that both of us shared the same views. Nothing else pal. I don't think this is the battle ground where we can test how enlightened we are, do you?
I also find it interesting that the pilots were blaming the father for bringing his kids into the battlefield. It looks like a psychological coping mechanism that we have to justify our actions.
Also, it's easy to say that it's not an RPG because we were presented with this information already. Look at the video and tell me it looks like a camera. It doesn't. An RPG is incredibly dangerous to an aircraft, and the pilot's senses were probably going haywire. It's simply a bad judgement call.
Quite frankly, I'm not surprised this video is covered up. This is a ramification of war, and anyone that believes otherwise is deluded. This entire war is illegal and was started on a false pretense to steal a country's resource. The American media has a pretty amazing ability to create a "us vs them" mentality, and it's sad to see a majority of them eat it up. Give it a week and it will be forgotten. Heck, it's been 2 days and no one is talking about it anymore. But hey, Tiger Woods is back and the iPad looks pretty damn amazing.
and quite frankly, not just the US will cover it up. I believe that any country will do the same if they're in the same situation. It affects troops morale and public perception (both domestic and international) of the country's war efforts...
I just hope that the U.S. and NATO allies can somehow redeem themselves and get things right in Afghanistan; but ironically, I feel it's not entirely up to them at all.