"guess you shouldn't bring your kids"
 

"into a war zone."


as said by the ground forces evaluating the damage from a helicopter mounted canon that mowed down a bunch of civilians and 2 children inside of a minivan.

Stay classy.

WIKILEAKS VIDEO OUT. "classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff." US Intelligence covered-up the murders and tried to stop this vide

this finally hit the MSM. It's amusing to see all the apologists. I bet they would feel a little different if it were their family. The trait the republican typically lacks.

I think all the outrage over this is bullshit. In the video, it was not obvious that they were civilians. There is no way one could tell whether or not those were RPG's or AK's. It's a fucking war. With that video quality there is no way you can tell me that those didn't look like guns or rocket launchers. Shit happens, good and bad, it just so turns out that this was a particularly bad incident. How are you supposed to tell the difference between an insurgent or a civilian from a pov such as their's? If I were in there position I would have done the same, if it they looked like insurgents, then hell, I'd fire too.

When that van showed up and started helping the wounded and gathering the dead, why wouldn't they fire on them? If they had been insurgents that were initially fired on, I sure as hell would assume the people in the van were insurgents as well. Based on the footage from the video it is in no way clear that those were children in the van. And don't even begin to tell me that you clearly saw children because that is straight bullshit. Yes, it's unfortunate children and innocent civilians were injured and killed.

But when it comes to life and death situations, you better believe their ass will be grass and not our troops'. IMHO our soldiers' actions in this situation were not unfounded. Sure some of their comments were snide and classless, but remember, they thought they had engaged the enemy. Why should they hold their tongues' about assholes that are out to get them? Again, it is really unfortunate that innocent children and adults lost life and limb.

I'm with Tom

It's not our soldiers fault we're in a war, but we are, and they're doing what is asked of them.

You really do have to look at things from the view of the soldiers sometimes. As a country we MUST support our troops whether we agree with the war or not, and on this one, I'm def supporting our troops. They did what they felt was the best thing to keep some bullshit from happening.

And about the kids...

As far as I know the soldiers didn't know kids were in the van, how could they have?

Also if we as Americans won't shoot when kids are around, the "terrorists" could carry a kid around all the time for immunity. Same can be said for a journalist vest....

That is part of why our soldiers jobs are so difficult. It's very difficult to decide who is "good" and who is "bad". So being like "ahhh we're gonna risk it and let him go, even though that looks like an RPG" just doesn't cut it..

I get what your saying. Sadly we're in a war and it doesn't look like it's stopping any time soon ) =

wow... that is horrible... i can understand its a war though.. so i can't really blame the soldiers.

but just like so much of this war (and many others i'm sure) the decision to engage was based on incorrect information.

it sounded like at one point, just before the decision to engage the van, there was someone in the background of the "bushmaster" saying they needed to stop... maybe that was something totally different though...

"COME ON! Let us shoot!"... lol, you cowboys you

what I saw was what appeared to be unarmed civilians helping an unarmed individual in a residential neighborhood...There didn't appear to be any cause for the troops to feel threatened to let it rip like that.

Obviously I'm not in the military to have a balanced perspective, but shoot first apologize later smells like bull

I'm sure he wanted to shoot sooner then later to keep the "suspects" in the same zone as they were initially engaged in, to keep the area of fire as small as possible. I would've shot the van as well because they were about to take people whom I just thought were involved in trying to shoot down my helicopter.

Would really have to be a twisted individual to beg for permission to take ones life.

But you never know.....

fair enough... but i know that when adrenaline is pumping and you are in a situation that you're in, there's a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy wherein you become the sadistic person on edge in order to survive war and hold it together... which is why in my opinion, individuals become what they really aren't and start see the "other" as a cockroach to be squashed

*there's a haji, POW, there's a haji, Pow, there's a haji carrying a baby haji. pow