Tonight, as any other night, my children sleep happily and comfortably and in the assurance that I will always protect them from harm.
That is, until, war and terror are brought to my patch of the world. Then, I cannot guarantee the safety of my children. They will go to bed with uncertainty and fear. And I will be left hopeless and weak.
That’s what I realized when I watched the Wikileaks video of United States Army mindlessly engage in the indiscriminate murder of people in Iraq. I have always watched the news fed to me by the MSM – sanitized, censored and orchestrated – just right to be digestible for people like me who are far removed from the destruction plaguing various parts of the world, so that we can carry on with our quiet lives without worry.
I watched the video in horror, my stomach sickening with every passing minute. Humanity must give itself a big pat on the back for being the number one animal on the planet. We maybe intelligent, but the raw animal is right there waiting to rear its ugly head to shame humanity once and for all.
That’s why we have rapists, child murderers, terrorists and armies.
The trigger-happy nature of the army of animals from the United States in the video shocked me. How eager were they to shoot, kill and destroy! I cannot imagine the kind of bloodshed and the murder of innocent civilians these wars must have caused – for this video is but one incident. It is one thing to hear about “collateral damage” and another thing to actually see it happen.
And you will see it purposefully made to happen:
As intelligent humans must seriously ask ourselves: how can there ever be peace?
What? no mention of god, islam, terrorism? Surely there has to be a muslim or something ‘islamic’ in this. You cant write terrorism without islam in one sentence. Even the dictionary tells you terrorism is islamic. You cant blame America. America is just. Did you write this?
@al
I do not see a particular kind of people being slain in that video. I see beyond the Muslim, the Christian and the Hindu. I see the plain human being with family.
This has nothing to do with the fact that I have anything against organized religion. Had I written about the atrocities committed in Congo would you have written this comment?
I was only pointing out that you’ve written a post without a word against islam and muslims. But now when I say this you will say you have nothing against Islam or muslims. That Islam is a peace loving religion and that there are good muslims out there who have nothing to do with terrorism. But most of your articles and the mindset you have tells how much you hate.
@al
But surely you exaggerate. I have written on a variety of topics.
In any case, I have got your point. :D
Hey! Is this how new converts to the brethren are greeted! With taunts and skepticism? Is this what the initiation rite entails? Darnnit, we thought it would be more of beating drums, bonfires, stuffing yr face with greasy camel meat, yodelling and ammunition garlands! This is all so very disappointing. So very disappointing. hmm… wonder if Jilbaab fihaara takes refunds….
You have written this without looking up your dictionary and your programmed software….its all Islamic terrorism….You have to go back to your previous articles and see how much damage you have done….its not only a gun can halm but the words are more powerful and those powerful words assist to fire the guns…sick humans! how much you all can cover up….This is sick..sick to watch and sick to think about!
Sir, I think you got me confused with someone else. If you can show me which articles I have written have done damage OR have assisted in firing guns then please point them out to me and I will gladly remove them from this blog.
Whatever the case maybe, war and terrorism, whether Islamic or otherwise is totally wrong.
What i see here is that the helicopters have very bad cameras. if they were able to zoom better like in CSI this incident could have been avoided.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/2/6/wired_for_war_the_robotics_revolution
[...] “The rush of battle is often a potent and lethal addiction; for war is a drug” Posted By Hilath …The trigger-happy nature of the army of animals from the United States in the video shocked me. How eager were they to shoot, kill and destroy! I cannot imagine the kind of bloodshed and the murder of innocent civilians these wars must have caused – for this video is but one incident. It is one thing to hear about “collateral damage” and another thing to actually see it happen… Read more [...]
This is just way too sick.
Its shocking to read some of these comments even, when the blogger expresses humane feeling of empathy and dreadfulness of the incident, some found a way to ridicule him.
Seeing the video, i just cant comprehend how a military man who have seen all forms of RPG’s failed to identify one from a camera , then goes on to say a group of men with Ak47′s, one guy had a pistol (Iraqi law does not prohibit it) the other guy yes did have a Ak, what blatant misinformation is that, maybe thats to ease his self conscience, if they had one. My logic could not come to on how they identified these men as being insurgents, some guys hanging around in the open they become insurgents. I would guess the copper would be about a 1km away that means they could easily see and hear the U.S military copper, if they were insurgents they wouldn’t be hanging out in the open would they.
There is no way this act could be justified.
And this is not terrorism how? Does this not make the US military the most well funded terrorist organization in the world? This is not just one occurrence, this is systematic both in iraq and afghanistan, ang gaza too.
Is this not terrorism because the troops are sent by a democratically elected government? For some reason, the votes make it legitimate?
More coverage here:
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/6/massacre_caught_on_tape_us_military
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/04/05/iraq
It is sickening. Not just because it is happening in Iraq. They may or may not be muslims who were being killed. Muslim or not, such inhumane atrocities causes me pain, horror and anger. That is what I feel and that I believe is what Simon is expressing here.
Unfortunately, some people are blinded to not see that simple truth. As a muslim, christian, jew, heathen, and what not; we must not lose our humanity. It is the loss of this very human feeling of compassion towards your fellow human that is hurting us all, muslims included. Some fail to understand.
yes Simon.. it’s really good that this video came out.. for the sake of humanity… but i’ve always maintained my position that EVERY single bullet, cruise missile, phosphorus cannister fired in this war in Iraq is just as criminal as the massacre we’ve witnessed in this video… everysingle one of the MILLION Iraqi deaths caused due to the US invasion… they don’t have to be there in the FIRST PLACE… and what’s even more sickening is the arming of opposing factions by the US military during the peak of the sectarian violence, which broke out in 2006, 2007.. and the carnage that it led to… utterly heart-breaking!!
you should also see watch this similar video, if you haven’t already, made by Jeremy Scahill on the massacre in Nisour Square by Blackwater personnel:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100215/scahill_video OR
http://rebelreports.com/post/365307368/blackwaters-youngest-victim-is-a-short-film-we
anyways… as an optimist i really hope that this particular video will have an impact on the American public opinion and, coupled with a slightly more humane President, will bring an end to this madness!!
(PS: Flickr has already started blocking comments with links to these videos!!)
Shocking.
It is even worse that after seeing just a tiny glimpse of the horror in that video, more people than ever will actually justify war. Only, this time they’ll call it ‘revenge’.
The unfortunate outcome of dividing humans into ‘Muslims’, ‘Christians’ and so on.
This looked like a video game footage. Horrifying that its real.
http://www.truthout.org/iraq-war-vet-we-were-told-just-shoot-people-and-officers-would-take-care-us58378
“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.”
http://www.democracynow.org/features/winter_solider