wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

[WOM]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

To keep a place like Iraq secure, what is really needed is a huge, huge extremely well-trained, multinational police force filled with people who are able to handle their business when the shit hits the fan, but are otherwise all incredibly cool under pressure - like Jedi or shaolin Monks. But we don't have a group like that - maybe we ought to - it would be expensive, but it might be worth it.

In a way, that's Canada's usual role as UN Peacekeepers. What doesn't work is that they aren't supposed to interfere - per se - in the nation's business, so they largely stand by and watch the inhumanity continue.

In Rwanda, they weren't even allowed to use their weapons - unless they were specifically being fired upon - while the genocidal massacre went on around them.

Jedi/ Shaolin Monks / Jean-Luc from Chibogamau; that's us.

[Reed John]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

That's just it. There have been attempts to create peacekeeping forces but they're not always (or ever?) effective. They do need to be willing and able to shoot people when it's absolutely necessary in the same way it is for SWAT teams and cops do occasionally to protect themselves and others.

Cops sometimes shoot and/or beat the living shit out people that they shouldn't and that's obviously a problem, but I don't think most cops would consider the killing in this video to be a "good shoot."

that's not saying much though: the US military had a better reputation for humane conduct than history's largest and most savage army of vengeance.

That's true. But the perception remains, I think.

[garcia]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

well, maybe it does in america.

[Reed John]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

The memory of how things were in WWII, I mean. Not the contemporary perception of the US military now.

Although I imagine the percetion has improved a little since Obama was elected.

[garcia]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

i accept that german soldiers would rather be captured by US than soviet forces, even if their relatives back home had been killed by US bombs. but i doubt the japanese were greatly impressed with uncle sam's decency after the firebombings and nuclear onslaught and that.

[Reed John]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

The war was brutal, to say the least, perhaps necessarily so or perhaps not, but that's not my point.

My point is that, relative to situation in Iraq, the occupation and post-war transition of Japan and Germany by the US and its allies went relatively peacefully. Our leadership was a lot more competent back then too, I guess and had a better view of the big picture, but I don't think either of those are typical of the history of one country occupying another. Bush et al seem to think that any country that we invade will eventually become a vibrant capitalist democracy like Germany or Japan just because we want it to. Certainly not.

And to be fair, Japan wasn't just a victim. And certainly Germany wasn't. So we had a lot of reasons to want revenge, but, for the most part, we managed to see the big picture. For example,there was the Berlin Airlift. Something like that wouldn't happen now, I'm afraid. I think we've collectively shifted much more toward an America First! mentality since then, which is very sad.

Now of course, the Marshall Plan and what not were mainly about checking the growth of Soviet influence and communism in general, so it was self-serving. But self-serving in a way that we cannot even manage today. It would certainly behoove us in the long-run to think more about how we're helping to alleviate poverty, corruption, ignorance, civil rights abuses and inequality in the middle east and central asia, and less about a War on Terror(!) but we don't seem to be collectively capable of that anymore.

[Uncle Ethan]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

The concept that Americans are somehow more vicious in war than other armies is an odd one.

Can someone point to the army that has been polite or humanitarian? I can't think of one.

The firebombing of Dresden, the massacre of various city populations in medieval times, the slaughter of Polish troops by the Russians, the use of poison gas in the Gulf War. Every conflict has its horror stories.

As Wyatt has said, once you are in a war you can expect horrendous events like this.

War is a shitty mess, whereever the protagonists come from.

[Reed John]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

Can someone point to the army that has been polite or humanitarian? I can't think of one.

The Salvation Army

[Cavalry Trouser Tips]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

Can someone point to the army that has been polite or humanitarian? I can't think of one.

The Salvation Army

I once got a frosty stare from one of them after getting a fistful of change out of my pocket and only sticking 20p in the plastic tub he was shaking.

[Incandenza]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

Democracy Now! has interviews from witnesses filmed the day after the attack, and just released now. 2 independent journalists had just happened to show up the day after the attack, not knowing that there was an attack a day before, and intending to interview refugees. When they heard the news about the Wikileads video, they realized that they had filmed the aftermath.

[ursus arctos]

wikileaks video of US gunship massacre

US military analyst arrested.

US military analyst, Bradley Manning, has been arrested on suspicion of leaking classified combat video and documents to a whistle-blower website.

Specialist Manning, 22, was detained during a tour of duty in Iraq, and is being held in Kuwait pending further investigations.

The WikiLeaks website posted a video which it says shows the US military shooting civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

It has not confirmed Spc Manning as its source for the helicopter footage.