huh?

Meh. Looks like Youtube is down for a while…

I thought the first one was bad. Someone may have died because of the second one.

Soldiers are trained to become less human, and more machine. Most people could not kill without this training. What soldiers are asked to do is not something that a human can do. They essentially become big, 11 year old bullies with guns and tanks.

Huh?  I still don’t see anything…

I couldn’t see the first one, but the second one made me feel very sad to be an American.  Why is this sort of stuff not being widely broadcast, like the OJ media event?

Be glad you couldn’t see them.  I can’t decide which is more sickening.

I’ll take DOFs word for it and not even try.

If this is the kind of video that I suspect it is, there’s a simple answer why it’s almost certainly not broadcast in the U.S.:

Wehrmachtszersetzung.

For those of you who for some reason can’t see the videos, the first is footage of soldiers in a army truck enticing a group of kids to chase them down the street by proffering up a bottle of water. One kid runs after the truck pretty much non-stop through the whole video clip until the soldiers finally toss the water bottle onto the ground where a bunch of other kids nearby immediately grab it.

The second video clip shows a U.S. tank crushing the car of an Iraqi man who had looted some firewood. One soldier explains to the camera crew that “The men don’t understand so we’re going to take their car and crush it. That’s what you get when you loot.” The Iraqi man tells the film crew later that he’s a taxi driver and the car was his only means of earning a living.

My first question was: If the men don’t understand then how is crushing their car teaching them anything other than to hate American soldiers?

What’s even more sickening is the story my friend that was a Marine in Iraq was telling me of how there were Marines that would throw out candy to children as they drove by in a convey, but would wait to throw the candy for a convey to come the other way, to see if the children would get hit.  Pretty fucked up shit for sure.

And yea just a couple great examples of how we are winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis huh Bush?

Thanks, Les. It’s certainly a way to win their hearts and minds, except it’s not for a cause friendly to the U.S....

That kind of footage would not help boost support for Enduring Oil Flow or whatever fancy name the Iraqi occupation goes under these days.

It is now a Civil War, and the US needs to either choose up sides or go home.

Anyone who has never been in a war will never be able to understand why these soldiers could do things like that.

That of course doesn’t condone this crap. I find taunting dehydrated children with water to be utterly reprehensible. But then, so is this war.

TS is right - stuff like this will happen in any war and should be part of the calculation of whether to go to war or not.  Of course you try to limit it, and prosecute the worst cases, but it will happen.

Not necessary to ‘understand’ it to take it into account in the war-decision. War debases the humanity of everyone involved; even ‘righteous’ wars, even ‘good’ people.

Spot-on, decrepitoldfool!  Mind you, I wouldn’t want to force my beliefs on anyone.  But making Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer” mandatory reading for everyone above the age of ten doesn’t seem like such a bad idea sometimes…

DOF: War debases the humanity of everyone involved; even ‘righteous’ wars, even ‘good’ people.

Thanks for putting those in quotes.  I’m still convincd that war is one of the greatest evils that we can commit as a species.  If we’re willing to wage war, we shouldn’t be surprised when some of those who perpretrate the evil start behaving badly.  Vids like this certainly don’t play well on the evening news since we like to think all our troops are heroes, but the truth is that there are always going to be some assholes in the ranks.

I’m still waiting for one single Republican to admit that going to war in Iraq was a bad idea.

Common decency goes out the window when the war machine comes to town. 

YAY for America! Those soldiers really showed them who is boss.

I have a bad habit of shrugging things off...but these are pretty fucked up. I’m a little disturbed.

I’m still waiting for one single Republican to admit that going to war in Iraq was a bad idea.

I’m still waiting for one single Republican to admit that going to war in Iraq was a bad idea.

Must get ears checked Kemosahbee.

I think Zilch meant ... someone in power ... other than you. 
All joking aside Consi, I think you would agree the soldiers were just being Cunts.
I hope someone hauls them over the coals for adding to the disquiet.
They shouldn’t be surprised if some of the kids’ fathers got together and ...

I’m still waiting for one single Republican to admit that going to war in Iraq was a bad idea.

Well, Zilch, I don’t qualify as a Republican, but I do trend conservative in many areas and the one that most conflicts with the norm here at SEB is the “War On Terror” (I hate that fucking phrase, though.)

Unfortunately, I don’t think going to war in Iraq was a mistake. I think going in under the pretense of WOMDs was a HUGE FUCKING mistake, and everything that’s happened there since the conclusion of the actual war and the capture of Saddam has been a complete and utter disaster.

I still believe that going in and taking out Saddam and allowing a democracy to take over was a good idea and that, if we had handled the aftermath properly, it would have been good for the Iraqi people. I still think they’re better off free than living under Saddam’s thumb but I think our departure is long overdue.

As a point of interest, it’s relatively common knowledge that I supported Bush in the last election, but some of you might be relieved to here that all most all of my voted in the latest election went to the Democratic party and at this point I’m leaning Democratic in ‘08. And I’m predicting now that Gore will be the Democratic nominee.

KPG: I still think they’re better off free

How the US sent $12bn in cash to Iraq. And watched it vanish.
Without considering loss of life to ‘the good guys’ it sounds anything but free to me.
I wonder if anyone’s naked arse will be drawn slowly across blister-causing hot coals; how will the neo-cons spin it to blame the librool pinko commies? 

how will the neo-cons spin it to blame the librool pinko commies?

One blogger of my acquaintence spins it this way: the anti-war movement “worried us into abandoning Vietnam to communist oppression”.  Substitute the word “Iraq” and you’ll have the new spin.

What picture you see depends an awful lot on what frame you put it in.

Good thing that Rambo went back and rescued all those MIAs, though…