That “collateral murder” video
Everyone is talking about the video from Wikileaks. UberPig, Laughing Wolf, Rusty Shackelford, Ed Morrissey and Bill Roggio. Rusty takes the pertinent parts of the 17 minute video apart frame by frame.
Bryan Casler tries to muddy up the conversation at Iraq Veterans Against the War.Katie O’Malley sent us a link to Huffington Post’s discussion on the subject – providing smoke.
I wasn’t there, I didn’t see what happened before Wikileaks decided where we could begin seeing the video, but based on what I’m seeing, a bunch of friends with AK47s and at least one RPG are crowded on the corner, while one guy sets up security on another corner. Its obvious that they’re up to no good and need to get ventilated before the dismounted US infantry gets in trouble. Simple.
This is how little the Left knows about what they’re watching. In the narrative, Wikileaks calls Bradleys tanks (that REALLY pisses me off). Then the idiot at Huffington Post describes a Bradley running over a body, but in the video, it’s clearly a HUMV. I guess there isn’t much difference between a hummer and a Brad, huh?
I’m guessing the anti-war crowd couldn’t watch the video past the title pages.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Bloggers, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military issues, Terror War
Fuck them. Maybe if they weren’t hob-nobbing with insurgents with RPGs they would still be alive today. But hey I guess Reuters doesn’t hire cameramen with common-fucking sense. Its not secret that Time, Reuters, the AP hired a lot of shitty freelance Iraqi reporters/photographers who in their spare time video taped IED/sniper/SAF attacks for AQI.
Good kills all around.
I don’t know … it looked like pretty damn good shooting to me …
Shooting the rescuers was shameful and, judging from some of the comments from veterans at slashdot.org forums, against common sense and RoE.
But the worst part of this is the US joining nations such as China, Vietnam, Russia and Zimbabwe in harassing and trying to intimidate Wikileaks.
Wikileaks calls Bradleys tanks (that REALLY pisses me off).
Pisses you off…FFS why is the Hummer getting the track grease the tanks so clearly need???
War friggin’ sucks! Lots of people minding their own business end up as collateral. Is it tragic? … You betcha! Is is sad? … Absofuckinlutely! That said, these dumbasses were doing anything but minding their own business. Sorry, but the AKs and the RPG were fairly obvious … using super-hindsight and ESP you can guesstimate that the 2 knuckle-headed, potentially-traitorous reporters are carrying cameras instead of something more nefarious. It’s been forever and a day since I’ve heard anyone bother to mention the 37 sailors aboard the USS Stark who were minding their own business and actually were murdered in an unprovoked attack by Iraqi forces. The only mistake here is that Bush the 1st didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to buck the international status quo and do the job right the first time instead of just sending Saddam packing out of Kuwait.
This was my sister BN during the surge. Very familiar with this incident. The point at which the reporters stopped being bystanders when they share the photos of the American positions with the muj around them. At that point they no longer are press but intelligence gathering entities for the enemy.
I show this video in my class without any comments. My students do not know that there are cameramen. They all see the same picture as the pilots in the video.
Fucking leftards are playing this one like the tractor video early in the fight. No clue that which they speak.
How are we going to find out who leaked the video and what are we gonna do to them when we do?
I just loved the chunks of bad guy flying all over.
Stupid KIA vans anyway. Always filled with unwashed clothing and leaky propane tanks.
As was mentioned earlier, what kind of retard brings children to a war zone?
Here’s a good comment I found somewhere else: First off, watch the full, unedited one, without the political editorializing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is9sxRfU-ik A little background is given in this one that is absent from the edited one. First off, the Apache’s mission was to support that infantry platoon. A few minutes before the video starts, that platoon takes RPG and small arms fire in that vicinity, so the Apache is called up to find the guys doing it. Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hsNUgILqRcy2oq1uFmVilJ1iQeAAD9ET6UK01 the 12th paragraph. Our video starts. They see a large group of people, all adult males, several of whom are armed. You can see 2 AK’s and at least one actual RPG around 3:30-3:45 http://i.imgur.com/vMZAE.png . Next, they see a man peeking around the corner and pointing what looks like an RPG at the infantryman about four blocks away. Armed men? Check. Immediate threat to American lives? Check. They get permission to fire, and as soon as they have a shot, they take it. (For what it’s worth, the actions of this group of people are very suspicious looking, especially in a combat zone mere minutes after US forces have been fired on. Including having the RPG firer simply poke around the corner and fire while everyone else hangs back to avoid backblast. See here for a slightly humorous example: http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq318/ChristoffTravel/Insurgent_RPG_Fail-c01.gif . Obviously one example does not a trend make, but I’m just bringing it to your attention) Secondly, I have yet to see anyone say that the group of guys with the reporters were NOT insurgents. For extra emphasis, at 30:45 there is more small arms fire. At 31:10 you see guys with AK’s and body armor running away from the area. There was DEFINITELY a battle going on in this area, something that Wikileaks biased editing job carefully omits. It wouldn’t be the first time that Reuters stringers were hanging out with insurgents for some good pictures. For instance, this picture: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/14/content_391288.htm Was taken by none other than Namir Noor-Eldeen, one of the photographers killed in this attack. Wonder how he got that? How about THIS one: http://blogs.reuters.com/blog/2007/07/18/losses-in-the-family/ Here, Namir… Read more »
I really loved the closeup of the van showing the children. How the frap were the pilots supposed to see them as this was going down? “Wait… don’t shoot, I see… uhhh wait, let me enlarge this… uhhhh… two dots in the front seat. Better not shoot, it could be kids… or dust on the lens.”
Dumbass to bring your kids to a firefight even if you think it’s over.
Brads are not tanks, but I guess I never learned the difference between a hippy and no good piece of societies waste.
Saw the video…
War is hell..and not a spectators sport!!
I would like to make the following observations.
1. the incident occurred in 2007, no one had any reason to carry an AK in ’07, let alone an RPG, especially in civilian cloths.
2. when God decides to rain exploding raindrops on your head that resemble Apache chain gun fire, you should probably surrender not run and/or have you buddies come pick you up. After all this is 2007, not 2003 invasion-type rookie mistakes.
3.I would have fired too if I saw a mini-bus (Bongo from the video) drive into an engagement area. Oh, for those of you that don’t know, 40mm HEDP is quite loud when it impacts anything including reporters. those dudes in the bongo knew what they were driving into.
4. don’t take your kids to work. Especially when your job is pulling some reporter’s A$$ out of the fire.
So in closing, this is a liberal anti-war fail.
Just like the dudes in the field with a SA-7 that the 101st Apache smoked in ’03 (that’s the video referenced above)…only that video was in thermals.
[…] This ain’t Hell…..: I wasn’t there, I didn’t see what happened before Wikileaks decided where we could begin seeing the video, but based on what I’m seeing, a bunch of friends with AK47s and at least one RPG are crowded on the corner, while one guy sets up security on another corner. Its obvious that they’re up to no good and need to get ventilated before the dismounted US infantry gets in trouble. Simple. […]
http://www2.centcom.mil/sites/foia/rr/CENTCOM%20Regulation%20CCR%2025210/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=%2fsites%2ffoia%2frr%2fCENTCOM%20Regulation%20CCR%2025210%2fDeath%20of%20Reuters%20Journalists&FolderCTID=&View={41BA1AAF-785A-481A-A630-12470AFCD6FD}
CENTCOM reports with pics.
Journalists had no visible ID, hanging out with guys with weapons, area where people were shooting at US forces etc.
From the CENTCOM 15-6 investigation, via Jawa Report:
We remained above the engagement site while Bushmaster sent ground forces to the site. Bushmaster arrived and reported 11 x AIF KIA and found RPGs and RPG rounds at the site. We also witnessed a loaded RPG lying 2-3 blocks south of the engagement site. Bushmaster reported that the first child was wounded and pulled from the van. We were unable to determine that there were children in the vehicle and never saw any children prior to or during the engagement. After viewing the gun tape, were able to determine that both wounded children came from the van. Bushmaster immediately MEDEVAC’d both girls to FOB Loyalty for medical care.
Watched the video and read some of the analyses by Uber Pig and Rusty Shackelford that were linked. (Haven’t read the rest yet.) I did find the analyses by Uber Pig and Rusty Shackelford to be very thoughtful and much of it strongly resonated with me. For example, Rusty Shackelford wrote on his blog, “People, this is war. This happens in war. It can’t be avoided. If you want to end civilian casualties then end war. Start by asking armed Islamists to put down their weapons. But you won’t do that because your real objection isn’t war, it’s America. Which is why anti-war activists around the globe never protest al-Qaeda, only America.” Very good point and I completely agree. Uber Pig also took a very rational tone. In replying in the comments section on Blackfive to the challenge that he “feel free to express the reasons…[he] think[s] it isn’t murder, rather than trying to make people guess,” he replied (IMO) very correctly: “I never said this wasn’t murder. The rather obvious point I was making, and you should have understood, is that Wikileaks IS claiming this is murder, and proselytizing that view, when they don’t have all the facts. They haven’t provided the context. They have taken a particular point of view which, frankly, does not seem like a view that is fair to the American military. You want to provide a safe way for people to leak shit? Fine. I respect that to some degree. But once your bias comes out and you take that leaked shit and use it to try American soldiers unfairly, without providing context, you become something else. Something less. You become a tool of the reflexively anti-American left and get on my shit list.” I completely agree with that. The burden of proof is on those who make the claim of murder and they have fallen far short of meeting that burden. In the regular day-to-day non-political world of personal disputes and crime and criminal investigations, where politics are not the primary motivating factor behind a report of crime, the reality is that making… Read more »