WATCH: Collateral Murder
Kit Knightly
With yesterdays arrest of Julian Assange, we thought it important to remember WHY he was in the Empire’s crosshairs. The video Collateral Murder (below) is WikiLeaks’ most famous, most shocking release. Footage of US military personnel murdering civilians and journalists and laughing about it.
This is the shortened version, the full unedited footage can be found here, with notes transcripts and accompanying memos and press-releases available here.
Wikileaks has obtained and decrypted this previously unreleased video footage from a US Apache helicopter in 2007. It shows Reuters journalist Namir Noor-Eldeen, driver Saeed Chmagh, and several others as the Apache shoots and kills them in a public square in Eastern Baghdad. They are apparently assumed to be insurgents. After the initial shooting, an unarmed group of adults and children in a minivan arrives on the scene and attempts to transport the wounded. They are fired upon as well. The official statement on this incident initially listed all adults as insurgents and claimed the US military did not know how the deaths occurred.
As shocking as the footage is, it is only a microcosm of the horrors inflicted on Iraq (and other countries of the Middle East), in the name of “freedom and democracy”. Realising the truth, that our leaders have no values, and our much vaunted armed forces can be peopled by violent psychopaths, is an important journey for everyone. A journey that Julian Assange, and WikiLeaks, started for a lot of people.
His reward for that service has been public ridicule, a deprivation of his rights, and now an illegal arrest. Chelsea Manning, who leaked the footage, was held in solitary confinement for years, and was recently arrested again, for refusing to testify against Assange and WikiLeaks. (UPDATE: It is now evident that Assange was handed over as a result of a dirty backdoor deal).
As of April 13th 2019, the people who started that war are not in prison, they are not ostracised or shunned or punished in any way. They are free to make speeches about Brexit, or be branded “adorable” because they hand out candy to other war criminals and their wives.
The criminals run free, the victims are unavenged, and the brave who speak out are savagely silenced.
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At 3:42 one of them is obviously holding and swinging a rifle and another seems to hold some cylindrical object hangin on a shoulder harness, too low to be an assault rifle. It could be a heavy machine gun but is probably the RPG. 🙁
Remember that we are watching heavily compressed video with alot of missing details.
OK, so I’ve looked at the video in a little more detail now (although more analysis needs to be done) and I think it’s safe to say it’s a fake. I’d appreciate other OffGers’ opinions whether it be for or against it being a fake. I suggest a collaborative approach – if Chelsea Manning is indeed an intelligence asset that is part of a controlled opposition effort and this video is a fake then I’d imagine that it will help Julian’s legal case. If you think the video is genuine I’m very happy to hear why – I certainly don’t want to be spouting it’s a fake if there is a good explanation to show it’s genuine. What I perceive to be elements of fakery: — Cobbled-together audio My feeling is that the audio is a cobbling-together of snippets of (mostly, at least) genuine audio of soldiers that are matched… Read more »
I should add the Apache helicopter firing kills 20 people very close to tents in which, one of the soldiers cautions, “children are moving around”. Would be terrifying although I do not know if those around the tents are the alleged Taliban and are the enemy of those in the tents. One would imagine they must be otherwise you’d think they’d take refuge in them. Nevertheless, it must be absolutely terrifying either way. The comments on the video give one pause, they really do.
Lee Camp says it all, briefly … (just 3 minutes of ‘Redacted Tonight’)
You would be forgiven for thinking that REUTERS might have something to say now, finally at minimum, some form of legitimate legal opinion & position on “Collateral Murder”, with some genuine interest in reporting reality: but, not a single prostituted ‘peeps’ … Taking the 5th ? Plain public avoidance of any discussion on matters of principle, most grave ! ? This wholly indicative fact, re. Reuters, AP & AFP, is more revealing of the strategic military NATO & CIA agenda of societal brainwash, via harmonising their policy of silencing universal press releases & all forms of media censorship, than anything else ! Because if The Guardian had had 2 journalists murdered, under identical circumstances, one would expect a certain position to be held & declared, publicly . . . one way or another, i’m not telling people what to think, you must decide for yourself, whether the main distributors of… Read more »
Tim, I’m afraid the evidence shows Ethan McCord, like Chelsea Manning and Adrian Lamo, are intelligence assets (although in the case of Adrian Lamo “was” might be the correct term as, supposedly, he died last year of undeterminable causes).
The hero-rescuer is a very common character in staged events.
My comment on video being faked: https://off-guardian.org/2019/04/13/watch-collateral-murder/#comment-153848
My comment on Chelsea being an intelligence asset: https://off-guardian.org/2019/04/17/a-marriage-of-conscience-julian-assange-and-chelsea-manning/#comment-153703
Flaxgirl: i’m afraid you still really haven’t grasped the slightest meaning & dimensions of ‘Weltanschauungskrieg’ and you haven’t been listening to anything i’ve said, due to your pre-occupation with apostrophe’s & shaving, with futile distractions, as gestures of good will & intent, called virtue signalling in many circles, & worryingly with a desire always to have the last word. Before i explain matters for Flaxgirl, again (matters you clearly have not yet grasped the significance of), despite many previous OffG statements, from myself & many others, inc.@Admin I have two questions i need answered from you, along with hints & a quote from “The Possessed”. 1) Have you ever been in a War Zone, either during or immediately subsequent to bombings, where conscious Terror, or even Genocide has been enacted or orchestrated militarily ? 2) Have you ever spent time, year on year, with NATO personnel of any description, post… Read more »
The answer to both your questions – unsurprisingly – is no. I’ll leave it there as I simply do not understand the rest of your comment.
Here is a blast from the past: The conservative UK Telegraph newspaper published an article back in 2004 detailing how even British military commanders criticized their American military allies for the brutal treatment of Iraqis. Indeed, the Americans were suggestively described as treating the Iraqis like “Untermenschen”–that is, the Nazi term for subhumans or unpeople. The relevant quote from the article is: Speaking from his base in southern Iraq, the officer said: “My view and the view of the British chain of command is that the Americans’ use of violence is not proportionate and is over-responsive to the threat they are facing. They don’t see the Iraqi people the way we see them. They view them as untermenschen. They are not concerned about the Iraqi loss of life in the way the British are.” Iraqi Untermenschen https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2004/04/11/iraqi-untermenschen/ Of course, these American war atrocities are only a “Few Bad Apples” and… Read more »
Thanks for this info and links.
Ethan McCord’s description of events reflects the thoughts of a sincere man with a conscience. He describes how incidents involving the cold-blooded execution of innocent civilians were virtually a daily event in Iraq, so I am confident to assume likewise everywhere else the US military has found itself deployed in armed conflict or ‘peace-keeping’ before and since.
I was particularly struck by his comment that he realised that he had more in common [implicitly meaning in terms of morality] with the people in Iraq than the people who sent him there. If just one American, or indeed any other Westerner, sees this video and revises their misguided opinion of how the US military operates in conflict zones – and how it treats its own servicemen as expendable collateral ‘jetsam’ – then something positive will have been achieved.
Judy, I’m afraid the evidence shows Ethan McCord, like Chelsea Manning and Adrian Lamo, are intelligence assets (although in the case of Adrian Lamo “was” might be the correct term as, supposedly, he died last year of undeterminable causes).
The hero-rescuer is a very common character in staged events.
My comment on video being faked: https://off-guardian.org/2019/04/13/watch-collateral-murder/#comment-153848
My comment on Chelsea being an intelligence asset: https://off-guardian.org/2019/04/17/a-marriage-of-conscience-julian-assange-and-chelsea-manning/#comment-153703
When did the U.S. Congress make a Declaration of War against Iraq, as mandated in the U.S. Constitution under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 … that would allow any U.S. action in Iraq or any other foreign country?
The US military are notorious even amongst allied militaries for being unprofessional and because of the profligate abuse of firepower even a menace to themselves and their partners. The number of US “friendly fire ” incidents is huge and goes back to WW2. It is dangerous working with them and smart allies try and act independently of them on operations. Because the primary function of the US military is to transfer taxpayer dollars to the rich and protect corporate and, more recently, Israeli interests, it has never had a need to be an effective fighting force that can actually win a war, but merely needs to destroy. This creates the moral hazard that results in atrocities such as seen in this video where murderous, cowardly ass-hats, acting like teenage boys enjoying a video game, use rapid fire 30mm rounds to turn human bodies into bloody ribbons. This is no exceptional… Read more »
nailed it.
Well said. Bill Hicks did a brilliant summary of this as he considers the rights and wrongs of “Gays In The Military”
Wrong link, here is the right one
Thanks for that, had a good laugh
Keep Crazyhorse’s name out of your vile mouths… the punk they’re calling crazyhorse is not crazyhorse…he wasn’t a coward like these rotten pigs
” …use rapid fire 30mm (corr: DEPLETED URANIUM) rounds to turn human bodies into bloody ribbons.”
Sorry to correct you, Cam O’Byrne, but somethings need to be said most specifically & clearly, after seeing what NATO and the U.N. unloaded first on the Balkans, i feel it is essential to discuss this horrific munitions legacy accurately, as it is designed to amplify the terror of the moment: and for the armchair gamers with keyboards that never actually get to see the reality & aftermath, y’all might take an interest in the subsequent health of the soldiers handling such munitions, as did the ETH Zürich, when doing check ups on the health of Italian soldiers deployed.
Everyone seems to be missing the elephant in the room. 9/11 was orchestrated for the United States to invade Afghanistan and reinvade Iraq to topple both governments financially. At the time, the world banks, namely the Rothschild family, did not have control of either country. The military personnel made a grave mistake that day, but were only there to feed the greedful lust of the cabal. Once they acquired Iraq and Afghanistan, the illuminati then set their sights on Syria and Lybia. Russia were, and still are the pawns in Syria. The US, along with France killed Libya’s president Gaddafi before he was able to establish a new currency for Africa. That leaves three countries left in the world that the Rothschild family doesn’t control. North Korea, Cuba and Iran. That is why shutting down the Federal Reserve is so important, and so risky. We would have to start from… Read more »
You’ve sailed off the Earth’s edge, I’m afraid.
You’ve missed the boat Ben and should have checked the historic timeline of events & all necessary comms. including financial matters, coz’ yer’ money & mindless opinions & options are worthless, today ! Sorry to tell you this Ben, but you are completely on the wrong side of a history demonstrable in both Law & mathematically. Do some sound research and check where the next boat is headed . . . coz’ you are playing catch up, big time, with so many billions of people way ahead of your childish humour. Hint: the IMF still accepts Maduro as Venezuelan President and if you believe everything that Trump says, then more fool you, coz’ you clearly have no idea how to negotiate & force the hand of the Deep State Shadow governance, who have subjected sovereign interests & military to dictatorship for corporate control of an Empire that transcends any national… Read more »
War is a dangerous business. Carry weapons in a war zone and you are likely to be engaged. Associate with such people and you too are likely to be engaged. Would you prefer something like the fire bombing that occurred in WWII? Idiots. Have no understanding of warfare.
A camera is a powerful “weapon”. I remember this well. The horrors of Iraq, of Libya, Syria, Yemen….all fall upon the conscinence of the USA. The sacrifice of our jouranalists should be protested & resisted. Is the USA totallly morally bankrupt. End torture. End imperialism.
Yeah, those idiots! You tell ’em, Sbrengard!
(Well done for not totally missing the point, by the way. Admirable).
So Gwyn and sbrengard are in favour of murdering innocent unarmed civilians and reporters and somehow think it’s their own fault, let me guess: ex serviceman who’s touchy ego is being hurt.
What you fail to acknowledge is that this was not a war zone. These people were walking down a street in New Baghdad for God’s sakes. And the driver of the van that tried to assist the first victims was simply taking his two children to school. The bombing of Dresden was also a war crime but please don’t try to diminish the hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians who were killed in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere in these illegal wars. Chelsea Manning’s leak of this video and tens of thousands of Afghan and Iraq documents, and Wikileaks initial publication of them, was a courageous and important sharing of truth.
Exactly, Charlotte. Those accusing Manning/Assange of conspiracy or espionage, or whatever they choose to call it to make themselves feel self-righteous, elect to avoid acknowledging the context of any of the revelations. I was appalled that the BBC News yesterday had the gall to describe this leaked video simply as “film allegedly showing a US military helicopter firing at Iraqi civilians”. They (BBC) neither showed the people being shot nor made any mention of the number of innocent people slaughtered in cold blood in the incident. That was the fundamental point behind the ‘leak’ and no-one with an ounce of moral compass could argue that the truth shouldn’t have been made public. The omission of these details was so blatant, I can only presume that the reporter was under strict instructions not to mention these facts, presumably to play down the fact that Julian Assange should be protected from extradition… Read more »
Cameras you idiot. They were carrying cameras. God help us
Yeah, the RPG mentioned in the video was a video camera. The people in the mini-van were trying to evac the wounded. I sure want to support a military that shoots journalists and medical teams with attack helicopters. Our troops know the real truth. Why do you suppose 23 a day commit suicide? Ever been to a war?
The once who killed these people are cockroaches of the most dirty kind. Publicly show their faces!!
Please do not confuse the action of a few with the intent of 1.5 million loyal, brave, well intentioned soldiers. There are bound to be a minute percentage of bad apples. Footage also can easily be manipulated out of context. Not saying that is the case. But I caution the generalization of an entire force. In war there is bound to be collateral damage and psychopathic behavior. It is a violent business.
so that’s alright than, this is not collateral damage, this is willingly (for fun) murdering civilians, they should be trialed for murder, well intentioned soldiers? Go to foreign souvereign countries to steal their gold and other resources and murder woman and children is not loyal and certainly not brave!!
oh god…………the bad apples routine.
F@@@ck of asshat! ! I have been to war, but this is murder, you swamp slime! There is no excuse for this. In wars foughrt by competent soldiers the odd civilian dies, not because of being targeted.
Go back to the swamp you creep.
98% of them give the rest of them a bad name.
You are doing good work, Knit, in giving alternative newsfeeds,
keep up that good work as the world needs more of that, judging by the state of consciousness of some of the commentors in this little section down here.
My goodness, the results of mindcontrol shown down here in this commentsection is overwhelming.
The brainwashingmachines in the household prove to be effective in beaming bullshit in your brains, people-alike-organisms…
looks like a good kill to me
— that’s because you’re either a zionist disinfo troll, or a fascist moron.
So the massacre of innocent human beings for sport is a ”good kill” is it.
The American mindset.
Carl you’re a scumbag son
Oh look, the Americans are here.
Sometimes I think freedom of speech is overrated.
Still, at least it means I can call you scum.
(PS: my comment directed at Mr Youngblood.)
Thank you Kit again. This video, along with all the other atrocities and slaughter committed by the Anglo Zionist Empire is why we need to stand up and say… Enough. Entire countries are destroyed and bombed back to the stone age: Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Libya, many others have their Govts overthrown, even a tiny speck like Grenada is invaded, those who oppose the rape and pillage of the planet; of Imperialism, like Patrice Lumumba, Malcolm X, Thomas Sankara, Martin Luther King, Amilcar Cabral, and many many more are dealt with. Permanently. How many millions more have to die? The evil, the depravity of this Empire is mind numbing. And I’m bloody angry that so many in Australia couldn’t care less about Assange’s arrest, and quite a few ‘progressives’ would have applauded it. Such is the degeneracy of the ‘Left’ and ‘polite society’. Our future is looking grim people.
The defining act of WikiLeaks is dissent (as Christian Christensen argues in my link below). Dissent is, at it’s highest, the act of throwing oneself on the cogs of the machine or, as Mario Savio put it: “put your bodies upon the gears”. This is what Manning and Assange did. Dissent is also the simple act of daring to think for oneself. To question the official narrative. Mae Brussell is one of the greats in this regard. I don’t cheer public intellectuals nor listen to them much. Nor do they terrify the elite. An academic is paid to be a valve to let off steam in a controlled (state university) environment. So is a writer or broadcaster in the controlled environment of a (corporate or state) news outlet. Mae Brussell terrified the elite. Here was an ordinary person, a home maker riled to action by the murder of JFK. It… Read more »
If only that appalling speech had been interrupted by somebody else. Maybe a protester or two…?
Those spineless drones in Congress stand up and clap – some of them clearly reluctantly,and many of them have a look of disgust on their faces.
DO something with your disgust, you irresponsible cowards.
Resist being made Zionist Israel’s second state.
Apologies. That comment belongs under the video of Nettie’s speech below.
I’m beginning to believe off-guarding is nothing more than an anti-American Communist digital rag spewing pro mohammadan ideology at the behest of House of Saud.
You crazy SOB’s sound like Alex Jones (InfoWars) rallying a small delusional audience of self proclaimed intellectuals, when in the real world, you’re most failed out of work writers trying to sell toxic snake oil as a cure all.
If not for America, you Commies would be speaking German.
Sieg Heil with a middle finger salute.
It was the USSR that defeated the Nazis. Not the USA.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/05/08/dont-forget-how-the-soviet-union-saved-the-world-from-hitler/?utm_term=.efd5d04af8af
The USA armed the Nazis throughout WW2 (Standard Oil, DuPont, IBM, Ford, GM) and then hired the Nazis to run the CIA (Gehlen), Latin America (Barbie) and NASA (Dornberger).
https://libcom.org/library/allied-multinationals-supply-nazi-germany-world-war-2
If you are not a shill, you are ignorant. Look up Ford and Hitler, Prescott Bush and Silesia, Rockefeller and Mengele, Edwin Black on IBM, John McCloy and Operation Paperclip, CIA and Gehlen, Barbie and Colonia Dignidad.
Dude, go back on your meds.
Hey, look! I didn’t ignore you!
I even added to your many downvotes for inferior intellect, stubborn ignorance and willingness to shill for the unforgivable.
at the behest of House of Saud
The “House of Saud” is a US puppet, you dumb-ass.
If not for America
The nazis were defeated by the USSR, you f***ing moron.
Take your idiotic propaganda delusions back to 4chan, where you belong.
Google up “The Jewish roots of the House of Saud”. According to some sources, Jews went to Saudi Arabia and started another branch of Islam, for the purpose of Divide and Conquer. Isn’t that what they have done since, like, forever ? Read John Chapter 8. It will take you about 5 minutes. Those amongst them who descend from the devil love to cause strife and war on Earth, because the devil and the evil demons live off the negative energy. They are the devils agents in this earthly realm. They did 911, just so there would be perpetual war. It was Silverstein and his Khazarian Mafia cohorts who became the leaseholders of the WTC complex 7 weeks prior to 911, despite the fact that it needed $1Billion in asbestos remediation or the city would shut it down. Under their watch, the “Gelitin Art Students” had free run of the… Read more »
Just as well Lucky Larry Silverstein doubled the insurance policy just before the planes hit. The $5 billion payout was a nice little earner. So was the second insurance payout he got from the airline insurance companies. Saved him the expense of ripping out all that asbestos as well
The Jews “started” Saudi Arabia, a country where there are no Jews and it is forbidden for a person with a passport stamped in Israel to enter, where one can not practice Judaism and it is illegal to sell land to a Jew. Decended from Devils and evil demons and live off negative energy. Google “Symptoms of Schizophrenia” and have a nice Anti Semitic life. Your tin foil hat is definitely on too tight
Escapee….poor guy!
He’s been brainwashed and does not even notice it!!
Escapee,
It’s safer back at the facility. I suggest you go home.
What absolute dribble ( Escapee ).
This is a mistake and a cover up. Assange (along with Snowden ) exposed Americans for something you would be outraged if it happened to America.
America is in the business of war & culture of weapons & if you think it’s ok for governments to go rogue whilst claiming they’re Democratic Leaders of the free world … you’re delusional from drinking the KoolAide.
It’s the exceptionalist argument again – if you can call it that…
It simply doesn’t enter their heads that THEIR outrage at being the target of somebody else’s military is exactly the same as other people’s outrage at being the target of an interfering US military.
That straightforward analogy is as unfathomable to them as the idea that 2+2 equals 4 both in Iraq and in the USA…
I don’t think there’s a cure for this syndrome.
All we can do is quarantine the victims.
Was hast du gesagt ?
The Russians saved us
All you dozy yanks did was finance Germany to begin with, and helped them hide the gold away towards the end.
‘I’m beginning to believe off-guarding is nothing more than an anti-American Communist digital rag spewing pro mohammadan ideology at the behest of House of Saud.’ – translation: I have encountered comments that disturb my preferred world view?
Off-G is not ‘anti-American’ as you put it, but pro-truth – this is an important distinction.
Don’t stand too close to us. You might blind us all with the sun shining out of your exceptional and indispensable arsehole.
You really are not very good are you.
Ask your team leader for a better script.
Another sperm stain shows the true face of capitalism and the ussr defeated the Nazis and the Nazis didn’t have plans to force everyone to speak German no matter what your tv documentary’s tell you
Oh and please show us the pro Saudi mohammaden propaganda! You won’t. weird you used the word Mohammedans which is a German term commonly referred to by hitler and then Sieg heiled, despite probably not being able to speak German (typical) but if I outed you publicly as a hitler fan you’d shit a brick and cry and get sacked and release a statement stating how those words you said weren’t a true reflection of who you are and you were under severe stress when you said but here’s the thing. I’m pro Stalin and when people try to out me I admit it then I immediately move to dispel the propaganda told about him. I don’t deny anything unlike you lot. Now go runaway claiming you’re a free speech advocate and cry that a good little yank cunt that people don’t think like you! Boo fucking hoo. America and… Read more »
lol, another braindead American speaks.
I don’t share Alex Jones’ politics, but you’re not fit to tie his bootlaces.
Wow, your comment really nailed it, you must be very wise. Is it school your Escaping from, or your nanny? Maybe if you let her change them diapers the other kids wanna play with you too.?
coment ment for `Escapee`
WikiLeaks also revealed: illegal waste dumping in the Ivory Coast (WikiLeaks, 2009); price fixing of medicine in developing nations (WikiLeaks, 2008b); money laundering by Swiss banks (WikiLeaks, 2008a); and the famous war documents from Iraq and Afghanistan (WikiLeaks, 2010b, 2010c). But this author argues it was way that WikiLeaks obtained information that made it so powerful – its threat to the elite lies in the act of dissent. “In addition to content, what makes Collateral Murder such a powerful vehicle for the questioning of authority is the manner in which the video was obtained and released. Of course, many iconic images serve as clarion calls for antiwar and antiauthoritarian movements: from the disturbing footage of Neda Agha-Soltan slowly losing her life on the streets of Tehran, to a lone protester defying a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square, to the young, naked Vietnamese girl Kim Phuk, running along a dirt… Read more »
Collateral Murder? “Seriously damaging” soldier-level PR for the hoi-polloi propaganda outlets to use in rousing some useful rabbles. But Assange’s real extraditable crime? Exposing consistently, chapter and verse, over many years, the toxic $lime-for-ethic$ in which many (most?) high-rolling politicians choose to wallow and many (most?) leading corporate notables choose to rot the now irredeemably toxic congressional-military-industrial fish (Eisenhower’s original formulation, partially redacted to keep the lid on the pot) from the head down. If Assange had stuck to publishing details of the vile malfeasance of lesser grunts in the shitheap of modern bodies politic he would still have been a very naughty, usefully PR-punishable boy, up there in hunt and persecute value with his source Chelsea Manning, but he is an equal opportunity shit kicker and he’s dun a bigger crime by far: persistently, intentionally and unapologetically kicking the flower arrangements off the widespread heaps of top end turds… Read more »
Am I alone in thinking that the absence of the political magazine ‘Spiked’s’ deafening silence about the whole Assange brouhaha is rather strange. They like to think of themselves as intrepid defenders of free speech but not on this issue apparently. They also seem to belong to the ‘criticism of Israel is the same as anti-semitism’ clique.
They also seem to belong to the “criticism of Israel is the same as anti-semitism” clique.
— and there’s your explanation.
Western intellectual culture is just successive layers of disinfo, all the way down. If you don’t get trapped in the first layer (BBC, CNN), you’ll surely get trapped by the third (highbrow(?) magazines) or the fifth (Chomsky, Democracy Now).
Milosevic & Francis Lee: Yes and Yes, the fakes and frauds will show themselves up for what they really are by their silence or what they say. As you point out Milo, its not just the revolting mainstream media we have to navigate. Its sites like Democracy Now and others. Its a matrix to imprison our minds.
The really insidious part is that there are multiple layers of disinfo, so that people who manage to escape from the crude mass-market versions will still be trapped by the more sophisticated propaganda. So, for example, somebody who eventually realizes that CNN has lied to them for decades, and then encounters Democracy Now, will assume that now they’re getting the unfiltered truth, and it will be quite difficult to convince them otherwise. Operation MK-CHOMSKY seems to be a particularly insurmountable barrier, for many people.
I don’t read Spiked but just wondered if this turdburger (by Luke Gittos) is typical of their output? https://www.spiked-online.com/2017/05/25/why-assange-should-stand-trial/ It’s the usual mishmash of name calling, faux outrage (over manufactured sex allegations) and concern that Wiki’s output might in some unspecified way endanger those who are busily murdering their way across the Middle East and N Africa. Perhaps poor old Gittos is unaware that the MSM has also published Wiki’s output so can we look forward to the editorial team at the Guardian being carted off in a Black Maria while neocons woop You-S-Ay, You-S-Ay? The British authorities ignored the inconvenient fact Assange (according to the UN) was being held in ‘arbitrary detention’. Now they are prepared to up the ante by overturning important international norms such as political asylum simply because Ecuador’s corrupt leader has been bought off by the US. Listening to hypocrites like Jeremy Cunt call for… Read more »
Sent the atrocity to facebook, via informationclearinghouse.info,yesterday.guess what happened?yes.your right!
“People who can speak well, speak briefly.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Possessed
Well written simplicity & poignancy; thanks Kit, less is more, to the point & chilling.
Lest we forget ‘WHY’, over a decade later – ‘Censorship’ ? !
War reveals many types of ugly characters & characteristics, (similar to funerals).
“The criminals run free, the victims are unavenged, and the brave who speak out are savagely silenced.”
Let’s not forget about the ROOT CAUSE of the problems in the Middle East: Wes Clark – America’s Foreign Policy “Coup” [Fora] https://youtu.be/TY2DKzastu8 05:10: “This country was taken over by a group of people with a policy Coup. Wolfowitz, and Cheney and Rumsfeld and you can name a half-dozen other collaborators from the Project for New American Century (most of the following are dual-citizens of US and Israel) William Kristol, Robert Kagan [husband of Victoria Nuland involved in the Ukraine coup d’état], Randy Scheunemann, Ellen Bork, Reuel Marc Gerecht, Timothy Lehmann, Michael Goldfarb, Elliot Abrams Lawrence Kaplan, Dov Zakheim]. They wanted us to destabilize the Middle East. Turn it upside down, make it under our control…” 6:05: We’re failing in Iraq because Iran and Syria know about the plan. All you have to do is read the (Kristol owned) Weekly Standard and then listen to Bill Kristol and he blabbermouths… Read more »
Just a series of wars, murder and mayhem across the planet for the benefit of the Chosen People by the obedient little goys.
Assange is where he is because corrupt people became too powerful, and if the US gets to rule the world unchallenged we all face this kind of persecution and that includes any 1% who won’t toe the line. I think US actions across the world in places of strategic value or which contain natural resources mean we can see what the Nazis would have done if they’d won WWII, with just a few years separating the horrors.
@ Michael McNulty – US will never get to rule the world unchallenged – if that cannot be prevented we will nuke it mate. Not a chance.
These are the consequences when right wing inspired governments are elected. Inevitably the profit motive becomes the prime mover in an all-pervading environment where budgets in every sphere are cut, jobs are under threat, the quality of education is reduced and a career in the military is viewed as a means to obtaining a better life in the future. A contributor to this website (sadly, the name escapes me at present) not so long ago wrote to the effect that governments do the bidding of multinationals and conglomerates whose interest is solely concerned with enriching themselves and their shareholders. The politicians who have the power to direct the armed forces are equally removed from the front-line action and so that unconcerned attitude filters down to the military personnel as is shown in the leaked video clip; and America questions why they have the problems of mass shootings throughout their nation.… Read more »
Here is a quote from a newsletter by Ingrid N. that Sweden is the rape capital of the world. “If my recollection of the original charges is correct, Assange was first charged in Sweden for “rape” but the definition of rape in Sweden includes unprotected sex. It was alleged that a condom broke during consensual sex. Only two people know what really happened, but what stands out here is the uneven application of the law. Assange’s name can be dragged through the mud for an event that was ostensibly private and for which charges had been dropped. If there was a window for action, it involved the potential risk of infectious disease or pregnancy, and the reason given for the original complaint was to require a test for STDs. However, with the passage time and the immense political and journalistic pressure on all concerned, the questions surrounding disease and pregnancy… Read more »
The Swedish police no longer even bother investigating violent rapes of very young children by rapefugees. They are simply swamped and have given up. Many are resigning. There is an archipelago of ever expanding No Go Areas where the police, let alone ordinary people, never set foot. There have been plans to use the Swedish army to try to restore some basic order, but it is unlikely this will come to anything. Just the blessings of multicultural enrichment, thanks to people like Barbara Spectre.
When we get to the point where the messenger is being killed based on whatever motives there are and the weight of whatever allegations are there outweights then real message…then we lost it!!
Just consider for a moment that is true that Assange sexually assaulted someone, somwhere:
1- Does that makes the video of this post FALSE? NO
2- Does Assange being the deshumanized being goverments are trying to portray, outweights the ACTUAL EVIDENCE of US delinquency? NO
If justice were based on evidence there is irrefutable evidence of US (NATO and you fill in all others) crimes against humanity.
There is NONE of Assange f**** anyone, shitting on walls or whatever else they might say.
Killing the messenger is the oldest of all tricks in mankind: ask Jesus!!!
Sweden would be the option. From there interventions can be put in place.
Australia has weak right wing manufactured Christianity creeping into its political mantra claiming patriotic values disguised as racism.
We have a track record of human rights abuse.
Oz has an election looming – Assange does not sit comfortably with anyone other than people who are human rights advocates referred to as “lefties”.
Let’s see what Oz does , if anything, for Assange.
“As shocking as the footage is, it is only a microcosm of the horrors inflicted on Iraq (and other countries of the Middle East), in the name of “freedom and democracy”. Realising the truth, that our leaders have no values, and our much vaunted armed forces can be peopled by violent psychopaths, is an important journey for everyone. A journey that Julian Assange, and WikiLeaks, started for a lot of people. His reward for that service has been public ridicule, a deprivation of his rights, and now an illegal arrest. ” – well said Kit, these sentiments cannot be repeated often enough. The reason the likes of the Guardian are terrified of the alternative media is because the alternative has become the most authoritative source for what is really happening the world. The Guardian’s treatment of Assange has been especially despicable culminating in lies they told about secret meetings with… Read more »
“2,500,000 barrels per day; $70 per barrel; 2,500,000 × 70 = 0. Sorry, Pythagoras: we’re in Basra”. We all know why our psychopathic leaders did this, don’t we? There is a nice binary black-and-white conception forming of megolomaniac leaders – acting purely for themselves – dictatorially lording over an innocent public. No one wanted the Iraq War, that’s for sure. How many people would accept a loss of living standards as a consequence? They went there for the oil. Iraq has the unrealised potential of being the world’s major oil producer. There were the knowns: the 5th largest proven reserves after Venezuela. And there were the unknown unknowns: Iraq is the one place there is a real chance of finding new reserves – extending the Age of Oil. L Paul Bremner kindly made the newly neolib state SOMO the main benefactor of the oil – “for the Iraqi people” –… Read more »
Stated with great eloquence and characteristic compassion. Metta.
The Iraqi regime would have been happy to sell its oil to western corporations, but that wasn’t allowed. Saudi Barbaria has plenty of oil, but the Anglo-Zionist Empire hasn’t bothered to invade them; they’re already a puppet regime. Syria has substantially less oil, but they also require Regime Change.
Everybody with eyes to see, knows that the Iraq War was done for Israel; it was their agents who organized it. “War For Oil” is just the limited-hangout disinfo pretext to keep leftist GoodThinkers and Chomsky-bots from realizing how the world really works.
That’s very right. All the hasbara trolls here and elsewhere will harp on till they’re blue in the face about the oil companies to divert attention from Israel and the Neocohens.
OK Laurel and Hardy The Berlin/Baghdad Railway; 1914 British invasion of Iraq; 1916 Sykes/Picot – carving up the pre-modern Middle East; 1917 Balfour Declaration; 1920 San Remo Resolution; British Mandated Palestine and Iraq; French Mandated Syria and Transjordan; etc … ….all the way through to present today. I don’t suppose it had anything to do with the strategic control and strategic denial (of Imperial Germany and later the ‘Communist Threat’) of OIL? The reason why Israel was there in the first place. But they did not do it for themselves. If indeed that is the case. Everyone who partakes in modernity relies – almost totally – on cheap oil to maintain their living standard. Oil that is no longer cheap and is becoming more of an economic drag – globally. So you can sit and snear, and blame the Judaisation of entropy if you want – but we cannot escape… Read more »
— the zionist disinfo is strong with this one.
still no explanation of why Iraq, Iran, and Syria have to be destroyed, whereas Saudi Barbaria is completely kosher.
Oppressor and oppressed both have to find a common solution, as unlikely as it seems.
sure, we should love our oppressors, the same as they love us.
blame the Judaisation of entropy if you want
“You’re going to have to serve somebody, it may be Devil, it may be the Lord, but you’re going to have to serve somebody” – Bob Dylan.
If we are no longer to worship the god of ‘progress’ (the fossil fuel economy) then what alternatives will be promoted or permitted ?
Noatide?
The entropy question is intertwined with theology.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23129975-after-progress
I cannot believe that the moneylenders are oblivious to the Limits to Growth, especially since the fossil fuel industry is only currently ‘vialble’ as a function of the debt bubble.
The ‘moneylenders’ wrote the book! The Club of Rome funded the original LoG, and much of the subsequent research. At least some of them know exactly what is going on, and are already weaponising the future against us. For instance: Gates has a $100mn joint fund with the EU for climate mitigation – aka the privatisation of nature. There is the whole globalist charity climate change industrial complex I call ‘corporate commoning’ – that used to have Gorbachev as a figurehead (and Kevin Spacey – remember him?) – now headed by Gore; there is the #NewDealForNature corporate fascists; the Global Commission on the Economy report – trying to unlock $90tn in pensions and capital investment to financialise nature. These are just examples. Read Cory Morningstar if you don’t already. http://www.theartofannihilation.com/the-manufacturing-of-greta-thunberg-for-consent-the-political-economy-of-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/ There is the whole Global Parliament of Mayors and Resilient Cities agenda which is well advanced toward Global Governance and… Read more »
As JMG wrote the ‘Long Collapse’ – he assumes entropy can be linearised. I don’t think this is a fair reading of JMG. He cites cyclical patterns of collapsing civilisations to make the case that such changes are gradual- people die en masse, but they also adapt, and the technological form of this civilsation will continue in increasingly wonky manifestations for some time to come. I don’t think he argues against the inevitability of entropy. I don’t though read him making enough mention of nuclear weapons. He doesn’t seem to acknowledge the power of controlling the discourse either (or, indeed, the religious ideology most associated with this). He doesn’t have an opinion on deep state crimes and agendas. Got to say that things look more precipitous to me every day. But then again, JMG would say that is exactly what people said in previous declines. The world regime of oil… Read more »
I used to read JMG religiously, years back. But I found his analysis flawed. I can’t find a citation: but I clearly remember of him talking of a three hundred year decline …which obviously leaves plenty of time to adjust. The book title says it all. Entropy is exponential: and ever more rapidly manifest at an EROIsoc level as addiction to oil. capital (Draghi sent the free money printing press to nuclear this week. Gold was ‘monetised’ making Russia and China a whole lot richer – extending their credit lines); as manifest in techno-theology. We are doing the very opposite of slow decline strategic survival and peaceful solutions. The thing about the unholy trinity of entropy, debt, and proto-fascist state autarchy is that they are largely invisible – until they manifest. When they manifest: nothing can be done. Governments are falling all over the planet: reported as a plurality of… Read more »
I used to read JMG religiously, years back. But I found his analysis flawed.
He seems to tacitly endorse Donald Trump in an example of his own magical/ wishful thinking about a supposed return to conservatism in America. When people point out that (just like Obama) there seems to be a rather big disparity between what is said and what happens, he waves his hand (just as the liberal idiots did).
Interested in your thoughts as ever BigB.
The ‘Conservative Archdruid’ would seem an apposite epithet! 😀
The awful truth.
Since Assange’s arrest, I’ve been posting the URL for this everywhere.
Well done for publishing the ‘collateral murder’ vid, with all the nattering and dog in the manger antics of the greed and greed enabler classes, it is too easy to get lost in the forest of “he said”, “they said” and forget what a vital public service Julian Assange and wikileaks performed for humanity. I’ve seen more than a few fellow travellers over the years shout “Wikileaks haven’t published anything I didn’t already know about”. Now, setting aside that is a huge claim and that every time I randomly open a page of the cablegate release I learn something new and cablegate was just one of ’em’ several hundred thousand /’em’ tranches of docs WL released, whether or not one of us had heard it all before was actually irrelevant. ‘ The facts are that most of the ‘normal’ humans huddling around what they consider to be the best bits… Read more »
This is a propaganda hit piece by mohammadan sympathizers. War is hell, America didn’t start this war, it was declared on us by Islam. May islam reck the hell of their attack on Christians and western civilization.
What a moron.
The USA interest in the middle east started as the UK and France started to lose their soft power over the region I. The post colonial era.
It’s about power, oil and control. The USA and the west have instigated the fight. Wake the hell up.
What’s our oil doing under their sand?
Holy shit, dude, waste those sand niggers!
How on earth does you bird brain arrive at that. Iraq offered no threat at all, stop reading the Express/ mail
yea its al them foreeeners falt
Make no mistake, the U.S.A and their vassal states most certainly did start the current chain of events we are experiencing, purely to satisfy the elites,their warmongering and hence, profiteering. You are so misinformed as to be laughable. Foreign policy of western governments with regard to the middle east, among many areas of the globe, is directly responsible for the conflicts we are currently experiencing and, if you had any moral fibre whatsoever, you would join us in condeming their actions. Your post would suggest you would like to bring back the crusades, invading said areas to impose christianity on these “barbarians” where possible, but you are sadly living in the dark ages and need to pull your head out of your arse. I make no apology for being so blunt, the time for niceties has come and gone, and these psychopaths need to be brought to justice. Follow the… Read more »
Whoa…!
Just think. We never knew that history only started in 2003…
As a person who came himself relatively late to political awareness, I must admit that even I am shocked by such ignorance.
Ah well – can’t be helped.
Trollheim itself was built with better bricks than this human skull.
And in case he thinks I’m dissing him… I am.
Really, that’s what you are going with? The lies about WMD in Iraq mean anything to you?
Remember 9/11 mohammadans. This is payback.
What are you talking about? 11/9 was a false-flag done by a clique drawn from the Israeli and USAmerican ruling ‘elites’. No question that it was a false-flag. The evidence for that is conclusive. Evidence that it was Israeli-originated is also reaching the critical threshold level. And anyway, what has any of that to do with Julian and Wikileaks?
Escapee. It’s time you went back to the facility you escaped from.
the facility you escaped from
4chan is where most of these moronic fascist scum emanate from.
http://boards.4chan.org/pol/
Memo to Satanyahoo:
Now that you’re back in charge, and presumably also back as Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, Education Minister and Minister in Charge of Hiring / Firing Call-Centre Trolls, I implore you to upgrade the quality of the trolling that’s been coming out from your Tel Aviv call centres and infesting Off-Guardian lately. The current troll here simply can’t take all the flack coming at him/her. Time to hire some people with college degrees, don’t you think?
Remember 9/11
It was the US and Israel that did that, you f***ing idiot.
We do remember
https://killtown.blogspot.com/2005/11/dancing-israelis-on-911.html?m=1
Why should they remember 9/11? That was the handiwork of your Zionist Masters.
Lots of relevant detail in this retrospective by the editor of the two Reuters crew killed. “I’d spent 10 days preparing for this ritual. It was really 10 years. I wanted to get everything right. I was about to ask Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen and driver Saeed Chmagh, both Iraqis, to forgive me for what I saw as my complicity in their deaths. I was the Iraq bureau chief for Reuters when Namir, 22, and Saeed, 40, were shot dead by a U.S. Apache helicopter on the streets of Baghdad on July 12, 2007, along with 10 other people. I had planned to be in Iraq for the 10th anniversary, to apologise to Namir and Saeed’s families. Instead, unable to cope as the day approached, I was admitted to the Psychological Trauma Recovery Services inpatient unit at Melbourne’s Austin Health. It was my second admission to the facility, known as… Read more »
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT As I anticipate being howled down, I ask the reader to simply consider the logic, reason and evidence for what I say and to try to put aside any emotional investment you may have in the injustice currently being committed against Julian Assange and in the civilians-being-gunned-down story. I also ask you to consider what you may already know: The Skripal case is a hoax, right? There is fakery of videos showing people being injured in chemical attacks in Syria, right? 9/11 was an inside conspiracy, right? First, let’s start with Chelsea Manning. There are many indicators that Chelsea is an agent and that we are, in fact, informed of that fact from signs provided to us. The signs In Chelsea’s Wikipedia entry — Chelsea joined the army with the hope of being funded by the GI bill to do a PhD in physics – as… Read more »
‘But then as soon as I saw the title of this article, “Collateral Damage”, just now – it hit me. [I’m so fucking dumb I can’t even read only two words in a row and remember, understand or transcribe them accurately. Wow, that is dumb!(admission redacted pre-posting in an attempt at intelle…interlec…intulec…mental self defense)].’ Who stole the peroxide? Time to smarten up again.
I guess when you have no other argument the thing to do is pull out the barely intelligible ad hominem.
when you have no argument
— the truth is, nothing is actually real. You’re just a disembodied brain floating in a vat, with your sensory inputs connected to a computer. The entire Iraq War, and everything else you think is happening, is just a virtual reality simulation. The power elite are watching your reactions, and laughing at you.
The sooner you wake up to this fact, the better.
Milo, they’re laughing at you and me both, you and me both … and everyone else. Let them laugh. It’s very cheap laughter though I do have to admit I laugh along with them sometimes. Can’t help it.
Downloaded 400,000 files onto rewritable CDs labelled “Lady Ga Ga” to smuggle them through security. I mean, it is a bit funny. And how much media fuss generated.
… can’t even read only two words in a row and remember, understand or transcribe them accurately And just to add, Robbobbobin, – yes I readily admit I didn’t read the two words correctly. I’m so used to the euphemism of “collateral damage” I didn’t see the actual words. So I have the same propensity as the next person to “see” what I expect to see rather than what is really there. I’m just as susceptible. I think where I differ from most people, judging by the now 24 downvotes on my first comment, is that when it is pointed out to me that what I think I see is incorrect I am able to recognise it. My belief in what I see is not so entrenched that I am unable to change what I “see” and when I’m told that a certain phenomenon, eg, the power elite actually tell… Read more »
That doesn’t make sense, the empire have nothing to gain from releasing this and if you look at the body language of central members of the empire they are clearly livid and calling for the death penalty. You have no evidence that manning is anything other the a highly moral person who refuses to submit to authority. “When I first realised that Chelsea was an agent” And thats how the livestock work, they make a unfounded accusation and then choose to believe it. For the masses “Facts” have never counted for anything, try reasoning with them and see what happens. Facts are met with dismissal, arrogance, subject changes, personal attacks and blank refusals to listen. I live in a world were I am surrounded by people, who by any reasonable definition are insane. Am I wrong ? Think for a minute Manning is an agent because he/she wanted “to do… Read more »
kev, I’ve presented my evidence. You may disagree that it qualifies as evidence, however, I have presented what I believe to be evidence. What I’m curious about is where is your evidence that manning is anything other than a highly moral person who refuses to submit to authority. Where is that evidence?
Hi flaxgirl Fair enough, as you ask calmly I will try and answer calmly – The evidence – Half a million leaked documents including some they really didn’t want us to know about, including a Beijing embassy report confirming the Tiananmen massacre never happened. If they wanted to embarrass Wikileaks they could just invent something like pee pee gate or Ceaser or the panama papers. They wouldn’t roll out the biggest leak in imperial history to “Embarrass Wikileaks”. The evidence – 7 years in jail. I think this speaks for itself. If he was a war criminal or deep state agent he would be walking free. In all this time he has refused to sell out Wikileaks. If he was an agent the whole purpose would be to sell out Wikileaks. The evidence – Hes in jail again !! For f**k sake. Because he refused to sell out Wikileaks he… Read more »
Sorry, Kev, I only just saw your answer now. Half a million leaked documents How do we know at least some of these documents weren’t fabricated? I believe the most famous of them, the video in question, is. The fact that they tell us Reuters journalists were killed doesn’t mean they were. They fake deaths all the time. See my comment from today https://off-guardian.org/2019/04/13/watch-collateral-murder/#comment-153848 7 years in jail They lie about everything, kev, absolutely everything. Very easy to say someone’s in jail, isn’t it? Doesn’t mean they are. Seth Rich There is strong evidence that Seth Rich’s death was staged. See demeanour of family in this interview and note father’s mouthing of mother’s words as camera shifts to mother, indicating scripting. This is the biggest mystery ever. The Dems would have had to be on it, surely, and yet it seemed to be so damaging to their election campaign. Could… Read more »
This is the kind of stuff that needs to be out there. Well done for putting this out and excellent points made in the commentary. I was talking about this to someone yesterday and how the public find it difficult comprehend that mass murderers wear nice suits nowadays – or as Kit says hand candy out in church to each other. I didn’t see many offering support to Harold Shipman because he was supposely a respected GP so I think this is something people need to get past. Another example, for some might be Ivanka Trump who looks attractive and stylish but was in oblivious attendence at the US opening of the their Embassy in Israel while Israel murdered scores of protesters. And she allegedly pursuaded her father to bomb Syria after the chemical fabrication, I think in 2017. Time for people to wake up – look beyond the suits,… Read more »
Think back, way back, to recall what happened to Baghwan Sri Rajneesh, later known as Osho. He was deported from the US after spending some time in a US prison. He claimed that he was poisoned during his incarceration. And he probably was as he died a short time later after he returned to India at the age of 59 of an “undiagnosed” illness. He had no health problems when he was detained.
Let’s hope Julian doesn’t suffer the same fate. Nothing would surprise me.
I seem to remember a three week ‘torture trail’ across the US returning him to court after his apprehension at an airport.
Obviously not all of America’s psychopaths are working in politics or on Wall Street. Sadly this State sanctioned amoral mayhem is simply standard operating procedure for the U.S. military. This is quite “normative” U.S. military behavior, which is why Wikileak’s sharing this information with the public is considered to be such a heretical act by Western oligarchy. Assange and Wikileaks told the “truth” and therefore they must be punished. Only the endless lies of the empire are permitted, and officially sanctioned, and found acceptable and proper for mass consumption. Daring to tell the truth of our never-ending amoral criminality – well that of course is an entirely different matter – warranting the most severe punishment the psychopaths in power can conjure up.
It’s our policy. Our rules of engagement. Kill anything that moves.
https://billmoyers.com/segment/nick-turse-describes-the-real-vietnam-war/
I knew someone who fought in Normandy in 1944.
He said the Germans didn’t worry him that much but he was bloody terrified of the Americans. They nearly killed him and his mates on several occasions.
The US military seems to attract and tolerate real psychopathic scum, the dregs of their society. There is a serious problem of indiscipline and criminality wherever you get a US base. They are forever getting drunk and high on drugs, kidnapping and gang raping 12 year olds. Local people in highly civilised countries like Japan and South Korea really despise them, but their politicians are just US satraps like Abe. Whenever these thug rapists and killers are caught, nothing happens to them. They have immunity from local laws and are just spirited away back home and get off scot free.
Nice strawman. Care to cite actual evidence of your claims that are more than cherry-picked incidents?
The US military are not even what can properly be called professional soldiers. They are unprofessional, all the flash gear notwithstanding, and the corruption and rot starts at the top with politicians that wear a uniform. Go do some research and not expect to be spoon fed the truth. There is plenty out there. Mark is exactly right in saying that wherever the US military parks itself contraband, child abuse, drugs, STDs, prostitution, rape, murder and insolence are sure to follow. They do indeed seem to have many more psychopaths amongst them than any random group. I’m thinking you are one of them. Or maybe just a f-wit. Have you ever seen a genuinely professional military up close? I speak from personal experience in saying that such soldiers scoff at what they see and avoid being too close for fear of being a victim of American incompetence and negligence. Murder… Read more »
“Nice.” (Said like he was playing a video game).
This is why the US military will never win the hearts and minds of any territory or country they try to illegally conquer – because they have no honour and their missions are without honour. I hope this video gets circulated far and wide.
Thank you for putting this video out to the public .Many have not seen it and the hope is that more will indeed see it and realize what is at stake which is a criminal state hiding it’s crimes .Shooting the messenger does not cut it anymore.
I understand that but please spare a thought for the Reuters bureau chief who sent those two out. He is Australian and has been tormenting himself about ‘should I have made more inquiries that morning?’ He has checked himself into a mental hospital more than once. And now it’s coming up again.
In war, those who die are the winners.
Those who survive, damaged participants, left behind relatives and having their property destroyed are the real losers – being tormented for years and decades.
In war, you have to think about what you are doing.
It has consequences.
Having said that, I am under no illusions as to the tremendous courage required in order to resist “just obeying orders”.
Perhaps their boss should’ve kept them out of an active combat zone, or, I dunno, let it be known that they were operating in the area and what they were going to look like?
Active warzone
Unmarked van
Unidentifiable case
Insurgents known for wearing civilian clothes
Then random jerk-offs wonder why they got shot up and have the temerity to call it “murder”. It’s like some of you would stick your face into a raging inferno and then get upset at the fire when you come away with third degree burns.
Yawnz: You may find this excerpt from “Stars Of The Guardian” infuriating. Or you may not care. (https://arrby.wordpress.com/2016/07/17/stars-of-the-guardian/) :||:- “Wikileaks – Inside Julian Assange’s War On Secrecy,” which is the last thing you want to look to Luke Harding (and David Leigh) for, is full of the ranting and twisting of facts that only someone with a “narcissistic persecution complex” could put before the public this way. The authors, who have a hardcore hate-on for alternative media, recount the “Collateral Murder” video that helped make Wikileaks a widely known and inspiring phenomenon, which other news orgs thought to imitate (http://bit.ly/29LazzR). Quite early in the video, when all you saw was men, including the two Reuters cameramen, casually strolling down the street, One yahoo in an Apache helicopter watching the scene from a great distance, and clearly working himself up for some killing, utters “Fucking prick.” Uh huh. That’s what I… Read more »
Excellent post, Arrby.
The US soldier who helped recover the injured children was Ethan McCord who subsequently (post army service, of course) spoke movingly and graphically about this atrocity and his experience in Iraq in general. His account can be seen in the video linked to the post from @USAma Bin Laden (16 April) at the top of this thread. As I commented under that post he said that he reached a point where he recognised that he had “more in common with the Iraqi people than with the people who sent him there”.
I don’t doubt that @Yawnz would call him a traitor.
Acknowledged. Thanks.