Its Not OK To Kill Civilians

Like Slacktivist says (please read the link)



The Video is of a small and very ugly massacre in Iraq a couple of years ago, by a pair of US attack helicopters on a small group (including 2 Reuters journalists) wandering through a neighbourhood. During the approach and attack, the soldiers several times claim (to their superiors) to see people with weapons, and to be shot at, in order to receive permission to shoot these people, but after going over it several times, I can't see -any- sign of any of the victims shooting, and the only weapon I can see is actually a camera being hoisted by one of the journalists.

I really hope this will prove to be a fake, a mock-up photoshopped into something it isn't, but that seems unlikely (edit: apparently a senior US military official has confirmed that the video is genuine, so much for that hope).

This just makes me sick. This is just pure murder. It's almost unbearable to watch the thing, especially when they circle around again in order to kill the wounded man trying to find succor, and to massacre the van-full of people who drove up to help him and look after the dead.

I appreciate that civilians often get killed by accident in warfare.

This isn't accidental.

This isn't a WAR!

The Americans are a hostile occupying force seven years after a war was concluded.

Morality aside (and that's a mighty big aside), this is just indelibly stupid. The briefest look at any classic suppressive effort against partisans, (guerillas, what have you) will amply demonstrate that massacres and brutality breed resistance and aid enemy recruiting.

I should fulminate further, but what's the point? Those who know it is wrong will be horrified, and those who don't are out of reach of logic, reason, or any trace of common humanity it would seem.