Video leaked of US army indiscriminately killing Afghan civilians
- Thread starter VanD
- Start date
2 million died during the vietnam war and villages/cities hwere burnt to the ground, what is 25,000? We can do this all day lol what is the point here?
Back to those 12 in Iraq, they had AK's. Fact. They were congregating in a war zone. Fact. The pilots made a judgement call in the middle of a war, 2 reporters died. Fact.
Do people expect them to get on a loud speaker and say hello ol' chap, care for some tea? by the way, would you mind telling me who's side you are on? thanks a million!
get real.
You still have not answered my question.
Back to those 12 in Iraq, they had AK's. Fact. They were congregating in a war zone. Fact. The pilots made a judgement call in the middle of a war, 2 reporters died. Fact.
Do people expect them to get on a loud speaker and say hello ol' chap, care for some tea? by the way, would you mind telling me who's side you are on? thanks a million!
get real.
You still have not answered my question.
Some context on the ROE and Orders arguments . . .
“During the course of my three tours, the rules of engagement changed a lot,” Washburn’s testimony continued, “The higher the threat the more viciously we were permitted and expected to respond. Something else we were encouraged to do, almost with a wink and nudge, was to carry ‘drop weapons’, or by my third tour, ‘drop shovels’. We would carry these weapons or shovels with us because if we accidentally shot a civilian, we could just toss the weapon on the body, and make them look like an insurgent.”
Hart Viges, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division of the Army who served one year in Iraq, told of taking orders over the radio.
“One time they said to fire on all taxicabs because the enemy was using them for transportation…. One of the snipers replied back, ‘Excuse me? Did I hear that right? Fire on all taxicabs?’ The lieutenant colonel responded, ‘You heard me, trooper, fire on all taxicabs.’ After that, the town lit up, with all the units firing on cars. This was my first experience with war, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the deployment.”
Although the testimony from the vets here is from the 2008 Winter Soldier hearings, they are a reminder that the actions by military personnel in the Wikileaks video were not unusual and probably were within a vague and flexible ’shoot anything that moves’ ROE.
Source of quotes audio archive of 2008 Winter Soldier hearings.
http://www.warcomeshome.org/
“During the course of my three tours, the rules of engagement changed a lot,” Washburn’s testimony continued, “The higher the threat the more viciously we were permitted and expected to respond. Something else we were encouraged to do, almost with a wink and nudge, was to carry ‘drop weapons’, or by my third tour, ‘drop shovels’. We would carry these weapons or shovels with us because if we accidentally shot a civilian, we could just toss the weapon on the body, and make them look like an insurgent.”
Hart Viges, a member of the 82nd Airborne Division of the Army who served one year in Iraq, told of taking orders over the radio.
“One time they said to fire on all taxicabs because the enemy was using them for transportation…. One of the snipers replied back, ‘Excuse me? Did I hear that right? Fire on all taxicabs?’ The lieutenant colonel responded, ‘You heard me, trooper, fire on all taxicabs.’ After that, the town lit up, with all the units firing on cars. This was my first experience with war, and that kind of set the tone for the rest of the deployment.”
Although the testimony from the vets here is from the 2008 Winter Soldier hearings, they are a reminder that the actions by military personnel in the Wikileaks video were not unusual and probably were within a vague and flexible ’shoot anything that moves’ ROE.
Source of quotes audio archive of 2008 Winter Soldier hearings.
http://www.warcomeshome.org/
The logic works both ways.
You can't say the US in justified in retaliation for the killing of it's civilians and then argue that another country doesn't have that same right.
The US has been directly killing people in other countries for decades, long before 9/11.... by that logic we should all sit back and expect/accept a lot of retribution.
You can't say the US in justified in retaliation for the killing of it's civilians and then argue that another country doesn't have that same right.
The US has been directly killing people in other countries for decades, long before 9/11.... by that logic we should all sit back and expect/accept a lot of retribution.
Related:
"We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."
That was General Stanley McChrystal, supreme commander of United States forces in Afghanistan, late last month - during one of the virtual "town hall" meetings held with US troops every two weeks, as reported in the New York Times.
McChrystal added, "To my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it."
Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LD07Ak01.html
"We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."
That was General Stanley McChrystal, supreme commander of United States forces in Afghanistan, late last month - during one of the virtual "town hall" meetings held with US troops every two weeks, as reported in the New York Times.
McChrystal added, "To my knowledge, in the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it."
Source: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LD07Ak01.html
