Once again please excuse the poor writting technique. I write when I feel and it pours. I choose to leave it in its natural state. I will make corrections in the future, but i'd like to think I can come here if no where else and hopfully be judged on content instead of being told why i'll probably never write for the New York Times. I do appreciate the good with the bad however. And I know dispite what I say you'll judge me as you wish. What I am submitting this morning is a response to a video released on http://Wikileaks.org/ which shows a US helicopter attack on a group of men walking and persumed to be starting a attack against American forces. I was horrified at this mismanagement of protocol and the disgregaurd of human life as if they were nothing simple because they're Iraqi. What do you think when you see this video? Or better yet what is this saying about long term America intervention? I believe our long term presance is doing more harm than good, but everyones entitled to their own opinion. This one is mine.
The Link-
http://www.nytimes.com/...
I realize this is probably a poor choice of words but this litterally "blew my mind". The whole time I was watching this I realized that the men or women pulling the trigger clearly did not know what their target would turn out to be. Ive been in the military for several years. This includes one deployment to Iraq. When it coems to engaging "the enemy" you must first be able to clearly observe and identify the target. To me they did the best that they could in this regaurd. However I did notice something that disturbed me many times over. And thats the voice speaking to the trigger man who was almost cheering him on before and after he made the shots, the litteral begging of the trigger man to continue to shoot the so called enemy combatants dispite them being mangled as it was.
The cheering as the bodies are ran over by the Humvee going to investigate after the shooting, and worst of all the statemnt that the children that were shot shouldn't have been brought there by their parents and thus their shooting seemed almost justified. Is this what it's come to? In all the training and all the talk about Rules Of Engagement, there really should be a random question thrown at soldiers and service men to test their minds. That question is " what is the value of a Iraqi civilian?" The viewer of this clip should also ask him or herself this aswell. What is the value a Iraqi life? Once you've determind this. Ask yourself what is your own value, and who has the right to roll over your corpse? This, America, is why they hate us. Its not about our wealth. Our "freedom". Or any of the other BS reasons we justify destroying them because we believe God is on our boys and girls side.
What made rolling over them okay? and Why was there a cheer at blowing them into smaller pieces? This is the hypocracy of our "democracy" and this is what makes us look like freakin Nazi's to the world. Because we roll over bodies and occassionally kill children with a smile. In case no one has said this, they're people. Just like you. Just like me. Dispite what you may or may not have thought of Saddam Hussein. Or what you think, know, or dont know about the Muslim world. They're people. And you just watched why we will never be safe again.
This video is why certain members of Muslim society bomb us and spend their lives trying to touch our safety and rock our sense of "patriotism". Why did the pilots cheer? It made me sick. Litterally. I was ashamed to have served with these men. I was ashamed I watched and could do nothing, and I was ashamed that these characters serve under the same flag that I adore. My heart hurts from this piece, because it would seem that many have lost their way,and went from being the bringers of freedom to a desperate people. To Nazis.