h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This event is from back in April, but I just learned of it today:

'The Pentagon said yesterday it was investigating cockpit video footage that shows American pilots attacking and killing a group of apparently unarmed Iraqi civilians. . . .'

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=569207


And, of course, the day would not be complete without a link to the video itself:
[Unsuitable link removed by Moderator]

'Oh, dude!'


Well. I can't help but wonder how many of the anonymous car-bombs we hear about were actually something like this little event. How would we know? It's not like this one ever would have been investigated if the video hadn't turned up on the internet.
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This story, and the video that goes with it, hits particularly close to home for me as a Canadian and as an Edmontonian since a couple of those American 'Dudes' did the same thing to some of my neighbours in the Canadian Forces. I've watched the video of that one as well. When those 'Dudes' bombed their Canadian allies in Afghanistan, killing four men from my town and maiming eight others, and despite an investigation that demonstrated that the 'Dudes' had disobeyed a direct order and gone ahead and murdered four allied soldiers, they were given a slap on the wrist and the whole thing was buried. I can't help but feel that whether this event in Iraq was in fact a war crime or a sad result of the fog of war, it will be buried, swept away, and the Iraqi families will never be given an explanation.



At least the American Ambassador to Canada (who has made a career of undiplomatically talking down to Canadians when he isn't ourtright insulting them) tossed the Canadian families a posthumous medal.



[Unsuitable link removed by Moderator][Unsuitable link removed by Moderator]

Anhaga,
do you have a link to the video of the "friendly fire" incident?

What if it had been 'Dudes' on the ground, and Canadians dropping the bombs?

*imagines the CNN coverage..*

This is what happens when you give bombs and guns to people taking amphetamines. Until later....
BCNU - Crescent

What the H E double hockey sticks is going on with this "unsuitable link removed by moderator" bs? Have we returned to the censorship of the initial days of the invasion?

It's probably a copyright thing.

go to the memoryblog and scroll down a bit. they have a couple of links to the video of the American bombing of a crowd.

htt p://www.thememoryblog.org/

As for the friendly fire one, I went looking for video last night but couldn't find any online.

I got the moderation email. The link was removed "because it contains a broken link, or a link to an unsuitable external website." The link isn't broken so I guess globalresearch.ca is na unsuitable website.

Here's a link to the memory hole archive: http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/fallujah_bombing.wmv

A follow up email from TPTB explained that 'In the present climate' it was inappropriate to link to the video. Those of you interested can just go over to the Memory Hole.

You must not see the raw data that the news comes from! You may be able to make up your own mind. This cannot be allowed.
BCNU - Crescent

Not to justify the actions on the video, but in war, this is what happens. Judgement gets clouded, soldiers get hostile feelings towards the local people if a fraction of them are out for their blood. This is why 'war is a failure of politics'. This is why Bush should have done everything he could to prevent it. He has failed.
But beside that point, the US also has a very bad track record where it concerns disciplining soldiers that go too far.

When ordinary people like me as "Why is it that America is so hated by the Muslims, this video gives the answer."

It seems to me that America is making all the same mistakes it made in Vietnam and with the same consequences. You cannot fight terror with terror, it just breeds more terrorists. It happened in Vietnam and the same thing is happening all over again in Iraq.

The sad thing about this time, is that there are British Troops involved. Harold Wilson had the right idea in 1966 when he refused to get involved in Vietnam. I hope that the British Generals have a withdrawal plan worked out and implement it, regardless of political protestations, long before we get to the situation that ended the Vietnam war.

Doanld

Just to be fair I sent another email asking for clarification and got a reply this morning. TPTB have no problem with us seeing the video; they just didn't want a link posted that went directly to the video without any context. I don't have any quarrel with that. As I've mentioned, you can easily follow the links at the Memory Hole and the Memory Blog if you wish to.

I don't think its up to the mods to decide what context we should be putting this clip in. It is what it is - an air strike on a bunch of people in the street. I couldn't tell if they were armed or not and don't think the 'dude' in the pilot's seat could either.

I agree Rev, but really, the removal of the link in post one doesn't matter much in the long run. Ooklay atway ostpay evensay

One thing that should be borne in mind before anyone makes their mind up about what the pilot should/shouldn't have done is that this video is extremely out of context...

1) We've no idea what happened five seconds before the video - for all we know someone fired a hand-held SAM out of the building those people came running out of... and the pilot was freed to respond against the building to avoid getting shot down himself...

2) We've no idea what the pilot's rules of engagement were... For all we know he might have been told by troops on the ground that the only people in that area were hostiles (i.e. there might have been a unit on the ground taking fire from that building...)

3) to look at the other side of it - the pilot and Ground or Airborne Controller might just have made a horrendous cockup...

The problem is that just from this video you can't actually conclude anything at all.

I concur with Whisky. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that the pilot clearly checks with a superior via radio before engaging. We don't know why the pilot was given clearance.

Hate to say that I agree with Blatherskite.

We don't know what is out of the picture up the road. Maybe there's a bunch of wonded soldiers lying around a burnt out humvee. Maybe there's no other units in the area to protect the wounded from an angry mob. Maybe there's no tear gas on an F-16.

And maybe it's just a cock up with a bunch of dead innocents and a bunch more new "terrorists" with nothing to lose.

That's why I posed the whole thing initially as a question and also tried to make clear why I might be biased for the cock up explanation.

I think what is important to mention, however, is that there is an investigation going on which is not getting much (any) coverage, even on Al Jazeera. We can't know right now the context of the incident depicted in the video. But there are individuals who do know and who can tell the world and make it clear. I've not been able to find the words of any of these individuals. My hope is that there will be a public inquiry into the incident with a clear discussion of everything surrounding it and that certain appropriate actions take place. My fear is that even if there is an investigation it won't be covered by the press and the only action taken will involve lifting a rug and sweeping (as happened with the incident involving the Canadians bombed in Afghanistan).