NICE SHOOTING MINI

[Ethax]

Why would you try to pick up bodies that just got lit up by a chopper rofl. Those people deserve to die just for being retarded.

[Hitshade]

You know I had hoped to avoid dropping an actual opinion here.... but of everything I saw in that video the only thing I actually do find aggravating is the wrecking of that van. While Im certainly not an expert in rules of engagement they sure didn't appear to pose any threat. In fact they only appeared to be attempting to provide aid.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8391112/

“It’s incredible to us that the enemy would attack our forces while we are providing innocent Afghans with health care,”

Amusing considering this occurred two years prior to the bullshit we're talking about now.

But then who really gives a fuck about a few civilians when there's oil at stake? Right?

[Crazy Diana]

[Bbriguyy]

We shouldn't be in Iraq or baghdad to begin with...

[Juvey]

I can't believe this debate has gone on this long, if it can even be called a debate. It's more like one person being an idiot and crying about 15 people while 3-4 laugh at him

[geng]

You know I had hoped to avoid dropping an actual opinion here.... but of everything I saw in that video the only thing I actually do find aggravating is the wrecking of that van. While Im certainly not an expert in rules of engagement they sure didn't appear to pose any threat. In fact they only appeared to be attempting to provide aid.



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8391112/

“It’s incredible to us that the enemy would attack our forces while we are providing innocent Afghans with health care,”

Amusing considering this occurred two years prior to the bullshit we're talking about now.

But then who really gives a fuck about a few civilians when there's oil at stake? Right?

insurgents did this all the time to gather intel and weapons before US troops got there. it didnt have a red cross on the roof so it was free to be fired on. also who the fuck would brings their kids to a place that just blew the fuck up.

[Hitshade]

It was still a piss poor call. If it weren't, this bullshit clearly wouldn't had to have been leaked by an anonymous source. Whether or not anyone thinks the soldiers were justified is moot. Anyone might have made the same decision in that situation, but it was still a bad decision.

In any case, no matter what anyone feels about the situation... war is ugly.

[jackslammer]

I'll quote what one of my favorite Salon columnists, Glenn Greenwald, said about this particular video and its response "The value of the Wikileaks/Iraq video and the Afghanistan revelation is not that they exposed unusually horrific events. The value is in realizing that these event are anything but unusual."

"A major reason there are hundreds of thousands of dead innocent civilians in Iraq, and thousands more in Afghanistan, is because this is what we do. This is why so many of those civilians are dead. What one sees on that video is how we conduct our wars. That's why it's repulsive to watch people -- including some "liberals" -- attack WikiLeaks for slandering The Troops, or complain that objections to these actions unfairly disparage the military because "our guys are the good guys" and they act differently "99.99999999% of the time." That is blatantly false. Just as was true of the deceitful attempt to depict the Abu Ghraib abusers as rogue "bad apples" once their conduct was exposed with photographs (when the reality was they were acting in complete consistency with authorized government policy), the claim that what was shown on that video is some sort of outrageous departure from U.S. policy is demonstrably false. In a perverse way, the typical morally depraved neocons who are justifying these killings are actually being more honest than those trying to pretend this is some sort of rare and unusual event: those who support having the U.S. invade and wage war on other countries are endorsing precisely this behavior."

As for 'wrongful' deaths:

The Iraq Body Count (IBC) figure of 94,902 – 103,549 civilian deaths reported in English-language media (including Arabic media translated into English) up to December, 2009 includes civilian deaths due to coalition and insurgent military action, sectarian violence and increased criminal violence. The IBC site states: "it should be noted that many deaths will probably go unreported or unrecorded by officials and media."

The Associated Press stated that more than 110,600 Iraqis had been killed since the start of the war to April 2009. This number is per the Health Ministry tally of 87,215 covering January 1, 2005 to February 28, 2009 combined with counts of casualties for 2003–2004, and after February 29, 2009 from hospital sources and media reports.

[mininolan]

... civilian casualties

so if randomly 15 american news crew were gunned down in the midst of war every one would be A OK?

a wrongful death is a wrongful death

Yes

[Firecrest]

Welcome to war. There's not a one in the history of the Earth without non-combatant casualties.

You shoot first and ask questions later. Anyone who says they'd do otherwise is a liar or a retard. Shit happens. You feel bad about it, you look to see if similar occurrences can be prevented in the future, and you move the fuck on.