From the ABC news article
The pickup driver looks around, then reaches into his vehicle, takes out a tube-shaped object that appears to be about 4 or 5 feet long, and runs away from the road into a field. He drops the object in the field and heads back to the trucks.
"I got a guy running throwing a weapon," one of the pilots says. Retired Gen. Jack Keane, an ABCNEWS consultant who viewed the tape, said the object looked like a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, "or something larger than a rifle."
The pilots check in with their operational commander, who is monitoring the situation. When they tell him they are sure the man was carrying a weapon, he tells them: "Engage. Smoke him." http://abcnews.go.com/sections/WNT/US/apache_video_040109-1.htmlNotice how at first it's identified just as a tube-shaped object which could be an RPG (or a piece of irrigation pipe for all we know), and it's not like the US military hasn't made mistakes before, e.g. blowing away a Reuters cameraman because his camera supposedly looked like shoulder fired missile equipment.
Note also the terms of the Geneva convention (below). It says that people not taking part in hostilities are not to be harmed. The first person blown away was the tractor driver. Even if the pickup truck driver had been trying to dispose of an RPG, I don't think that gave them the right to blow away the tractor driver without any apparent evidence that the tractor driver himself/herself (some people have remarked the tractor driver looked like a female) was actively involved in fighting or offering resistance.
Also shooting a wounded man not offering resistance is also against the terms of the Genva convention. I realize the US Armed forces are of the opinion the Genva convention does not apply to them so long as they are wasting "evildoers." However the effect of this video will just further alienate Iraqis and the rest of the world and provide evidence that the US hypocritcally talks the talk re. respecting human rights and observing the Geneva convention etc., but it is all just for show and outward appearances.
Last of all we'll get the, "This is war and in war bad things happen" excuse and, "Don't criticize if you haven't been there and been shot at yourself." I say fuck that. That Appache pilot and the rest of the US Army and Marine Corps has no damned right to be Iraq in the first place.
In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following provisions:
1. Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, colour, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.
To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) Taking of hostages;
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm
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