GRAPHIC VIDEO: U.S. Soldiers Execute Iraqis!

[IranianDemocrat]

Apache gun camera footage:
http://www.btinternet.com/~red23uk/224Helicopter_Kills.mpg

Is it just me or did those Iraqis pose no threat whatsoever?

[Frangible]

1. They were armed enemy fighters

Infantry vs. helicopter is a pretty lopsided fight, yes, but that's why we spend money on technology.

[jayfish]

14. Uhh. The Apache Was Designed...

to support our tank divisions in Europe against the USSRs far superior numbers. Thereby helping to prevent nuclear war. It was not designed as an anti-personnel weapon.

Jay

[Frangible]

24. That's not true

Although certainly capable of serving in an anti-armor, role the Apache is a multirole, versatile fighter, and is not exclusive to tanks.

It can carry several different weapons configurations, some of which are in fact designed for anti-personnel use.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/ah-64.htm for more information

[jayfish]

36. I Just Knew You Would Make Me Back That Statement Up.

-SNIP-
Armed with 16 laser-guided precision Hellfire missiles, 76 70mm rockets, or combination of both, and a 30mm automatic cannon with up to 1200 rounds of high explosive dual purpose ammunition, the AH-64A was developed for the US Army to help counter a numerical advantage in Warsaw Pact armored forces.
-SNIP-

Jay

[Must_B_Free]

20. Now that we have Saddam, who is the enemy?

can anyone explain that to me?

Who is the enemy, what is he fighting to acheive, and who is he being led by?

[Frangible]

25. The guys with the guns shooting at us

And I'd guess there are a number of different answers to your other questions.

[9215]

42. Did you serve in the military?

[Pale_Rider]

2. Cold and calculated ...

... especially with last one being shot-up, being obviously wounded and trying to crawl away.

http://www.journalism.co.uk/news/story795.shtml

The MPEG format file has been posted to several right-wing US forums, where the effectiveness of the Apache's firepower has been celebrated.

So far though, in spite of its graphic nature, the film does not seem to have attracted much attention from the anti-war movement.

Looks like some outrage is in order!

[brainshrub]

5. I agree with the outrage

but what are we supposed to say? "Gee, those poor Iraqis were just trying to kill American troops then BAM they get fired upon! How unjust!"

I know that it's more complicated then that. But if your going to be a pro-peace activist, you have to pick & choose your battles. Speaking out against this video is not something I have the energy to do right now.

This video does remind me of the book 1984, where the population is entertained by watching a boatload of refugees die. It's sick that there are people who find this kind of thing entertaining.

[Pale_Rider]

12. Apparently one of them was seen ...

... carrying some sort of 'weapon' which one report characterized as a RPG. As the article stated:

Tony Sleep, a freelance photographer in the UK, was one recipient of the file. He was emailed a link to a US academic site that temporarily hosted the MPEG file.

"It's very uncomfortable to watch because it's so calculated," he told dotJournalism. "It's quite pornographic actually."

Yep, your analogy to 1984's scene is apt and is the basic for my outrage.

[MrSlayer]

3. Is this the one from last week, that was edited...

to make it look senseless? I saw the whole thing and it was the right thing to do.

[trotsky]

4. This one does look senseless.

I mean, the one guy was just on a tractor for crying out loud. I sure hope there is more to it that justifies the reaction.

[MrSlayer]

16. Yeah, this website cut out several parts.

The beginning of the footage shows the Apache tracking a truck on the highway, which stops and meets up with another truck which they suspect is carrying RPGs. Then you see one of the insurgants get out with an RPG launcher and go over to the guy on the tractor for a short bit before he goes back to the other truck. That's when they open fire. The whole thing is justified, it's war after all. And regardless of how against this war I am, I still want our boys to win the battles. I seriously doubt Poor Mr. Iraqi was going to use that RPG launcher to protect our soldiers' lives. They did what they had to do. And as far as the wounded guy goes, a truck just blew up in his face, shooting him was a mercy because no one was going to come save him, he would have suffered for a long time before dying.

[trotsky]

27. War is hell.

If that's the whole story, our boys did the right thing.

[Merlin]

6. As a combat vet, if these were clearly identified bad guys, it's legit.

If these are clearly Iraqi insurgents, then they're fair game under the current rules of engagement adopted by your government and mine in our behalf.

I don't support this war. But, nonetheless, I think this was an effective and legitimate use of firepower, provided--as I said--they were clearly identified as "enemy" combatants.

[mike1963]

8. Well, explain something to me: We "went to war" with Iraq, right? That's

what the White House, Pentagon and State Dep't. say. Doesn't that automatically make EVERY Iraqi an 'enemy'? Oh, wait, I forgot...it's all about "pre-emptive" force. Silly me.
:eyes:

[IowaBiker]

40. Please Mike,

Don't make the soldiers the victims because this President decided to go to war for political reasons.

To do so makes the Democratic party look weak and abusive.

These young men and women signed up to defend this country and are obeying their orders. Please direct your anger toward President Bush and others who have apparently lied and deceived the American public into approving this war.

In a full-length review of the tape, a rocket launcher is visible on the tape.

--Brian

[TexasMexican]

7. Repost x10

[Must_B_Free]

19. First time I saw it

.

[shrlnaw]

9. .

It was shown on ABC News. But this doesn't show the part where one guy pulls out an rpg from the truck and later drops it in the field. It is awful, but legitimate use of force.

[mike1963]

10. I saw it several days ago and I wasn't able to identify the long thing

wrapped in a cloth as an RPG. Does your TV set have an X-ray button?

[MrSlayer]

22. It was an RPG launcher.

Quite obvious, what do you think he had? A long pepperoni?

[newyawker99]

46. Hi shrlnaw!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Blue_Chill]

11. U.S. Soldiers Execute Iraqis? ??

This is a legit strike from what I am seeing. Military hit on a military target.

[Buffler]

13. Some here think

that the killing of Saddams sons was an execution/assasination. Never mind that they were firing upon the troops.

[mike1963]

15. Some here think that using 150 soldiers to kill 3 guys who were surrounded

was a bit of overkill, as it were, and that there may have been undeclared motives to prevent Udai and Qusay from having any opportunity to say ...uh, things.
:eyes:

[OneTwentyoNine]

21. Yep,yet one more totally ignored tidbit by Whore TV

Didn't it seem just a TAD bit strange that US troops had to keep firing and firing on that house until SH two kids were dead? We could have taken them alive with little or no resistance.

Whatsa matter Chimpy,afraid of what those two might have told the WORLD??

David

[Buffler]

23. Little of No resistence

We could have taken them alive with little or no resistance.

That was attempted for an extended period of time. It failed and our soldiers were fired upon. Their response was appropriate.

[Blue_Chill]

17. I know and it's sad

sad that I have to share a big tent with people that defend those two pieces of shit that represent everything liberals used to be against. They were rich while others suffered, they were rapists, they treated the Iraqi population like toys sent for their enjoyment.

Yet they were seen as poor victims of the big bad US.

Give me a break. And you just wait I'll be called a freeper for writing this because lately anyone who doesn't join in on their military hate is immediately labeled a freeper.

[Sir Craig]

33. There are no freepers here...

A couple weeks ago, I had the bad luck to spy some comments here in DU that made me question whether this site was such a noble effort on the part of liberals who felt they had no voice or marketplace to share concerns. Never had I read so much venom aimed at the very people who have little control over things: military service people.

I have no problem knocking Bush* on this: this war was the product of evil men who used our national paranoia after 9-11 to correct a mistake "Daddy" made years before. But I had a serious problem with some of these "academics" who spouted rhetoric that clearly labeled them as those who have never been put in a military position before. I was so disgusted with the attitude of some of these people that I declared my own moratorium on contributing, at least until I saw that things had become a bit more rational.

Yes, the killings are horrible (made all the more so by the fact that we shouldn't have had to be put in that situation in the first place), but I'm realistic about what war is. Rather, it has continued to make me despise what BushCo has turned the military into - a tool of foreign policy. If, as was described earlier, these Iraqis had weapons, then they were legit targets. And so what if the one Iraqi appeared wounded: Has no one here heard of the term "playing possum"? The dipshit should have stayed hidden if he didn't want to be killed.

There are plenty of victims in this whole mess, but I'll not shed tears for Hussein or his sons, but rather for all the innocent victims of BushCo past, present, and future.

And that includes military personnel as well.

[9215]

43. How do you have a legit strike in

an illegitimate war?

[Randi_Listener]

18. Uncomfortable != Execution

The video shows what appears to be a legitimate military strike. While uncomfortable and ugly, it is war. This isn't the type of war where the 2 sides are in trenches facing each other down across an open field. If the insurgents are identified as combatants, they are a legitimate target.

If you want to get pissed, get pissed at the pieces of shit that sent them over there. They are who is truely responsible. The soldiers are doing exactly what they were sent to do. If you want police actions, send a police force. The US military does not do police work.

[Solomon]

26. I've seen much worse than this.

Can't divulge how and where I saw it. The guys I saw it with were cheering like there was nothing wrong with doing it and one of them even remarked, this is the best video game ever!

What I saw was a military feed on to a guys computer. He had saved it to brag to people. It looked like we were watching from the inside of a helicopter or jet as they hunted down, one by one, people fleeing from buildings and a mosque. You could hear the guys in the helicopter talking about which buildings they could hit and which they couldn't. They identified for each other which building was the mosque, ("do not hit the mosque" - they said) and which buildings they could take out.

After they started shooting at a guy that walked toward a truck, some people started running from buildings and the mosque. The helicopters weren't shooting bullets like on this video - they were firing some kind of grenades and bombs. They would use about three or four of these bombs, for each person they killed. Somebody crawl under a truck, and boooom! Bomb hits the truck. The guys I was watching with were cheering -- "he's toast". They lapped it up as we watched several people killed one by one. Best video game ever.

At no time did it look like the helicopter was under fire. I'm not saying they didn't have a military reason for doing it. But from my vantage point, it looked like people down there just crawling around trying to survive, but getting blasted up. I don't believe they were all enemy unless you consider every Iraqi citizen an enemy. Of course, I admit that I could be wrong, but... If you saw the whole thing from when they were calmly setting targets, then opening the carnage, and the way that it did look like a video game, the little people running and crawling and the trace of bombs toward them. It was surreal.

[Randi_Listener]

30. Afghanistan

If it's what you are describing, I think it's the video from a C-130 Spectre gunship. It circled an identified Al Queda/Taliban hideout and opened fire once receiving clearance from HQ.

[jsw_81]

34. It's a different story if they were Al Qaeda

Those animals are the ones who killed thousands of innocent Americans in New York.

[Randi_Listener]

35. I realize that.

I remember something happening in New York on September 11, 2001.

[TexasMexican]

31. AC-130 Video

I saw that one too.

My opinions of that video are the same as of this video.

[Foehammer]

37. I think this video is more

graphic then that one. I'm glad its not in color.

[EV1Ltimm]

28. i'd imagine freepers are creaming themselves right now.

[Snappy]

29. War is Killing

No question about that is there?

My question is, since the USA liberated Iraq why are 130,000 troops still occupying Iraq?

I saw on TV that Bremmer is now advocating begging the UN to step in. Seems that the US Regime is desperate now to get out by July, so the Iraq debacle won't be a big part of the re-election drama.

[BigDaddyLove]

38. Yep...........

Especially to your last sentence.

[jsw_81]

32. War is hell

I don't think we should even be in Iraq, but these guys were perceived to be a threat to American forces during a time of war, and they had to be eliminated. Period. It's sad, but this is what happens in war.

[citizen snips]

41. Yes

sad to see but as they always say in war it is either kill or be killed.

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[dutchdemocrat]

44. War or No War

The soldier in the video identified the man down as being wounded then ordered to have him killed or shall I say murdered.

And that is a war crime under several international treaties including the Geneva convention.

You can buff this up under the guise of 'support the troops' or 'war is hell' but the bottom line is, in my opinion, whomever made that order to kill that injured man should be standing in front of an international court of law and facing charges for War Crimes.

The evidence is very clear and has been recorded. The victim was even identified as being wounded.

But this will never happen. Bush has made it almost impossible for US military officials and soldiers to be charged with crimes of war by using economic and political force on other nations around the world, leveraging promises not to charge Americans.

Nice "Get out of Jail Free" card. It's a new class of warriors - ones' that don't have to be held accountable for their actions.

[...Alltogethernow]

45. Posted in a similar thread, but true nonetheless ...

I know about this incident.
Although disturbing, it should be noted that these Iraqi insurgents had just previously attacked an American convey during a nighttime raid, with small arms fire and RPG's. The men in the image stopped several miles before an American security checkpoint to ditch their weapons used in the attack. Unknown to them, after their attack on our boys and innocent Iraqi citizens, American Army aviation forces tracked their movements using FLIR on three AH64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters.
Further, the convoy was allegedly carrying medical supplies and sustenance for Iraqi civilians and American support troops in need. The convoy was defended minimally and our men suffered injuries in the attack.

[warrior1]

47. I'm sorry

but anything we do in this country is illegal. From the audio 'our' men made a comment that he had missed his target, then went in for the overkill. Not in my name.