Today, 5 April, 2010, Wikileaks released a video they had obtained. It is helicopter gunship video of an attack in Iraq. To this old Vietnam vet, the video is absolutely disgusting. This "brave" air crew seems to be enjoying the killing of what look to be unarmed civilians. I have watched this disgusting video three times now and still cannot see any weapons being carried or used by the people on the ground.
The air crew laughs at the destruction they are dealing out to these human beings. That is absolutely disgusting. In Vietnam, we Marines, I was one, at least had a grudging respect for the VC and NVA. This air crew have no such feelings from the audio on this video. The continue to ask for further permission to shoot again and seem to want to shoot even more. The video gives the appearance of a video game. Perhaps that is what the air crew are "thinking", that it is all just a big damn video game.
If this is what we are now training our troops to do, if this is now the "standard" behavior of "our" troops, then I have a very hard time having any respect for "our" troops.
Here is the link to this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3GO&feature=player_embedded
I also want to include a link about our use of drones in our current wars. It is at the following address;www.counterpunch.org/rattansi04022010.html
A very huge hat tip and thank you to John Francs Lee for placing the link in his comment here at the old corner. As some of you may know, I am a regular reader of the Counterpunch web site, but always appreciate a good link to any web site.
I want to thank all of those who posted comments here on the drone post. Thank you all for your comments. I feel very fortunate that you took the time to read my rants and then left comments. And yes, I even like those comments that don't agree with me. Sometimes I think I learn as much or more from the negative comments as from the positive ones.
Again, thank you all for your comments.
I think this helicopter video does tie in with the use of drones. It shows how the wars of America are becoming more like video games. Both also show the absolute immorality of war. Yes, with the drones, we don't have the pilot and gunner shouting and laughing, or do we? We have yet to see any video of the "pilots" who fly the drones, safe in their nice air conditioned bunkers at an Air Force base here in the old US of A. I have no doubt there are cheers when they complete a bomb run or missile strike. Also, for the drone "pilots", the war is more like a video game. They are remotely piloting these air craft. They are in even less danger than the air crew in the above video. At least that crew was in the war zone personally..
YES, I am disgusted at the use of these drones.
Again, I refer you to a comment made by Mr. Lee here at the corner. He mentioned being shocked at the idea of one man beheading another. Well, until the advent of fire arms, that is how wars, all wars were fought. Very up close and very personal. It took real bravery to fight in the days when swords and knives were the high tech weapons. All very up close back then. With fire arms, war became a bit more distant. Air craft made war even more distant. Now we have missiles and even drone (remotely piloted) air craft. War becomes ever more distant for the "combatants" today. But as we keep our "pilots" safe here at home, the civilians who happen to live in or near the war zones become more of a target. By making war so easy and relatively "safe" (for the drone pilots at least), we make war all too easy for the politicians to get us into. War becomes even more dehumanized than ever.
I personally believe that war is the most pornographic thing we humans have ever devised. I have said so here more than once. I know I have stated that to many people over the years. With the use of remotely operated war machines, we make it even more pornographic than ever. War made easy, is war made far too often in my view.
I have also observed that for the most part, those who are the loudest supporters of wars are those who have either never worn a uniform or they have never been in any war zone. We call those people chicken hawks. I call them bull-shitters and worse.
Another comment before I end this post. Just how "brave" does one need to be to drop a bomb or fire a missile by remote control? And yes, the very same question does apply to some one who detonates a road side bomb by cell phone or some other remote way of detonating it.
Thank you for your time reading this.
p.s. If you have trouble with my link to the Youtube video, please look to the right side of my blog and click on the link I have to Reality Zone. He has posted the entire video at his excellent blog. A very huge hat tip (thank you) to Reality Zone for that excellent service to us all.
