What do you think of this video?

I have chosen not to watch this video, it's the kind of thing that won't let me sleep for weeks. It's simply awful and I really don't want to believe those reporters were killed on purpose. I don't know what to believe.

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The initial engagement doesn't matter in the slightest, once one starts shooting up an unarmed vehicle picking up the wounded, one has crossed the line into war crimes.

The US Military needs to step up and take responsibility for these actions. The pilots and commanding officers need to be held accountable for their actions.

What a horrible video to watch first thing this morning.

There are a couple things that immediately give me cause for anger with this.

Set aside the fact that war always ends up with innocents killed...which is a truly awful fact....here is a list of what really really really ticks me off

- They were never fired upon before opening fire

- The victims never took aim at the helicopter with the cameras, even if there had been guns, they did not take aim at the Americans - no direct threat

- They begged for the right to shoot unarmed rescuers obviously looking to give medical aid...that's like someone shooting our medics

- The atmosphere we put these guys in was/is so paranoid,competitive, aggressive and disturbing that they get to the point where they are laughing while ending live, even begging for the opportunity to do so, as well as laughing while running over a human being with a tank. If that was our soldier on the ground there would've been a huge huge huge outcry from our military about that atrocity and the comments the soldiers made.

- The subsequent response to questions about the incident led to outright lies and deception by the military personnel and leaders.(which I believe is why they don't mention cameras in reports - I don't think this is the first time this kind of lie has been told in a military response to a bad op)

This should be a clear and definitive call to action to put our military leaders to higher standards of honesty and integrity. When they are doing this supposedly for us there better be more transparency and better training of our military, better responses to real vs. perceived threats and much much better honesty when mistakes are made. They need to face the facts - they screwed up royally on this and need to face the consequences. ALL is absolutely NOT fair in war.

If nothing bad happened here, why did the US Military hide the video for several years?

I'm listening to the head of WikiLeaks online talking about this. In his words: the military and CIA talking about how to hack into his site. How to manipulate public opionion against him and destroy him.

There's no statement from the White House. No one's recalled Congress from their Easter break for emergency hearings. No massive protest marches anywhere. Right now, I'm not sure what else to say.

I'm absolutely horrified that this is the kind of image my country is projecting to the world. When they first began to fire, it couldn't have been more obvious that the "weapon" was not a weapon at all. And then firing on a vehicle that was clearly only there to evacuate the wounded? I agree with Mike -- somebody needs to be investigated for war crimes for this (not that that will actually happen).

A Freedom of Information Act request produced the following military investigation of the incident:

http://www2.centcom.mil/sites/foia/rr/CENTCOM%20Regulation%20CCR%2025210/Death%20of%20Reuters%20Journalists/6--2nd%20Brigade%20Combat%20Team%2015-6%20Investigation.pdf

Around the tenth page the following comment appears:

c. 0620:34 Z (Exhibit C Photo). One of the cameramen is seen peering from behind the wall looking west toward the approaching Bravo Company soldiers. The voice on the gun tape mistakenly identifies the long telephoto lens as an RPG.

This report puts the blogger cited above into serious question. If there wasn't a camera found, why is it seen and identified on the video by military investigators?

The footage is brutal and savage, just like war itself. But the comments and political coverup point to something even more sinister. According to the US military, a man stopping his van to help a bloodied and crawling victim is now called an insurgent, and his children inside the van are legitimate collateral damage. It's the "hearts and minds" battle that the Iraqi people see, but the West likes to pretend doesn't exist. Trained killers all too eager to kill and politicians all too eager to lie to cover up and justify the killings.
Instead of dealing with the serious issues, the US is trying to shoot the messenger and looking for ways into silencing and discrediting WikiLeaks for exposing the truth. The first casualty in war is the truth, only if we allow it and prefer the lies.

How can anyone be surprised about things like 9/11? I'm a peaceful individual and I'm not advocating violence - but watching this video, I begin to understand why some people choose to fight back. It made me so angry and sad that even I started to think, at least for a second, that for people like the one pulling the trigger here the death penalty might not be such a bad idea after all.

Salaam gang,
I tried to watch this video yesterday but I felt too disgusted and so sick to finish watching it till its end... I have to admit though that I wasn't that surprised, after all that's the ugly and bitter reality of the foreign occupation in its most obvious form... We keep hearing that in modern and civilised democracies people get punished when they do wrongful acts, if so then why has this video been hidden from the public for so long ? Why the cover-up ? Is it because the victims here are only Iraqis i.e. barely people whom we shouldn't bother ourselves about ???? With my love... Yours sincerely, Lubna N in Baghdad

I have not looked at this because I know what it will show.
War, people killing and people dieing. It is a bad act but not that unusal in as much as both sides do the same things - only the West publicises them for scrutiny and punishment and the terrorists do not.

This just makes me wonder what other things they are hiding. They clearly do cover ups. In a war that clearly didn't have weapons of mass destruction. A Dictator the US government supported before Kuwait. Torture, killing civilians and lies. Can America or those responsible even be charged with war crimes? maybe this can be called into Fog of War but still they lied to the media and public, how is that not a crime somehow.

In defence of the soldiers however. I think they did believe those people to be insurgents and when you have lost friends and fellow members then you will feel anger towards them and you will be seeking to find a enemy to release. I think the guys thought them terrorists and felt nothing for them because of what they thought they were. They dehumanized them which happens in war.

Though command told them to not provide care that would of been better to children but they felt nothing for them either they clearly have issues.

Hearts and Minds, The US military has never have achieved it and i doubt due to it history they ever will. This is just further damage to there reputation. If only they had a reputation of admitting there mistakes...at least.

So is Obama a war criminal?

The helicopter from which that footage, and those rounds, were shot makes a hell of a racket. The victims on the ground knew that it was in the air and that they were within range yet they made no effort to hide or evade and were going about their business unconcerned and displaying no sign of ill-intent. How does a soldier decide that those people in those circumstances need to be killed? There was no sign of imminent, or even eventual, threat.

Why did I watch the video? - I watched because I feel it is incredibly important for everyone to know what really goes on, important to truly understand the actions and consequences of sending people into war, any war.

I think we need to see the coffins coming home draped in the flag, we need to know what happens to citizens of war zones, the sorrow, pain and tragedy - we need to know what we condone, allow and sometimes ignore when we send our troops to fight anywhere. They pay the price by giving up their safety, their comfort, their lives and sometimes their sanity by being in our military.

War changes people, people who in normal circumstances would never laugh while slaughtering human beings - never beg for permission to shoot people - never make a smart remark about people having their children in a war zone. War damages and kills people both physically and mentally.

By allowing this to happen without honest, critical review and analysis we don't learn from mistakes.

@ steve -- No, because he isn't directly responsible for this.

@ Cabe -- The US didn't really publish this; it had to be pried out of them.

I want to send my thanks to the Pentagon insiders who leaked this video and Wikileak for posting it. As hard as it is to watch - think I'm going to be sick/angry for a long time from it - I believe that it was important for them to let us know what happened.

@ Steve - Obama may be a war criminal just as Hitler and the German Generals were but he'll never be prosecuted much less charged. After all his Nobel Prize for nothing may get tarnished.

While this is very disturbing we all must take a step back and understand that this is a war zone. People get killed in war zones. There is no antiseptic war where only the bad guys get killed. Innocents die in a war zone adding another reason why war is something to be avoided.
Still, even I could tell these people were innocent looking. I did not see the children in the van but I did not see anything dangerous about the van.
Yet I have great compassion for the soldiers firing as America came to free people and give them a better chance at life and in return all we have received is animosity. What happened maybe not be forgivable but is understandable.

High tech "remote control" warfare makes it all too easy to be disconnected from the horrors of war and consequences of your actions.

Couple this to the slightly "cowboy" exhibited by too many members of the American military and you have a recipe for disastrous incidents like this.

Blood other than American is cheap. that is what it comes down to. The number of civilian deaths in these war zones Iraq, Afghanistan and in Pakistan where you have these attacks based on suspicion without any proper evidence. We should protect and respect other nationals lives just as we treat American lives. And do not compare to what the suicide bombers do because we must be better than that. For the past decade there have been so many cover ups that have been unearthed yet there is no accountability. No different than what we blame other undemocratic governments of doing.

@Steve and @PilotDan
Just to clear this up one fact, Obama became president in January 2009, this event and the subsequent initial cover up occurred in 2007 during Bush's administration.

Noticing lots of terms like "remote control wars" or "cowboys". The deaths of innocents today are minimal compared to what they used to be. You think B-24s, B-17s and Avro Lancasters were dropping guided bombs over German cities during WW2? You think the German HE-111 bombers were dropping guided bombs?

If you think a few people getting killed by friendly fire is bad, let me mention the names of one German Ship, that was full of allied POWs that was sank by the allies during WW2, results in the deaths of thousands of allied prisoners. The Russians sank a German ship with even more innocents on it. The worst maritime disasters in history were the case of allied forces sinking German ships that were full of allowed POWs, and german political prisoners, resulting in the deaths of over 10,000 people from just a few ships being sunk. And these are mostly ignored by history, and yet people today focus on mistakes that are much less plentiful in number of deaths.

@Steve - it doesn't make sense to me or work to convince me to support any argument by using other atrocities as examples of why it is ok. jmho

@ Ben's tweet -- I'd be interested in hearing what effect this has on her perception of the USA as a whole.

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Here's a different though not convinced opinion:

So far, only one video has been released/found. How many of these missions were recorded during the Iraq war? The number must be huge. We know that humans do extrem, even inhumane things under psychological pressure.
If scenes like this were the norm then something would be seriously wrong. But this is only one video. I think it would be unwise to release this to the public if internal disciplinary actions are taken.
We cant expect our governments to reveal every single mission or recording. Or if so then we would have to look through every single recording before we give judgement.

Saaed stood like a cameraman, his camera looked like a camera, the good Samaritan had the body language of a good Samaritan. It is only right that we see the final moment of our Reuters brother, however discomforting.The soldiers seemed to be callous, immature, bored and looking for action and sounding more like sociopathic kids playing a video game in a pizza parlor than mature adults.

@WHYS - I would like to know more about Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Kauzlarich - his comments that his soldiers acted appropriately. If I understand correctly he is the one associated with the initial lies about how Pat Tillman died. I'm wondering if there might be a pattern developing around this Lt. Col. Can you find anyone who might be able to clear any of this up?

Viewing the short version of the video, my initial reaction was that I couldn't imagine any circumstances in which such action would be justified. The people on the ground were totally non-threatening to the helicopter hovering overhead. So even if they were armed, which it turned out they were not, I could not understand how they could have been mistaken for insurgents to be engaged.

The only possible explanation I can come up with is that insurgents normally feel unthreatened by US helos, because they know from experience that US forces are normally NOT given the authority to engage. That's the only possible explanantion I have, largely because it has been my own experience (not being given the authority to engage, that is, and seeing an insouciant enemy going on with their activities).

No wonder the video was hidden away. Very frustrating that we are involved in Iraq, only adding to the violence that already existed and continues to exist over there. Even if this is an isolated event, it's not how you win "hearts and minds." Makes me angry to see us being part of the problem, and to have our forces put into these situations for no good reason.

Unfortunate as it is this sort of event is part of modern war.
But sometimes the American's shoot first attitude leads to uneccasary death and injury to innocents of war and sometimes their allies (I remember one particular attack involving a US ground attack jet attacking a British ground unit with many deaths and injuries during a blue on blue attack in the Iraq war)

War reports must take responability for their own actions and if they venture into potential hostile situations then they must accept the dangers.

America can and is it's own worst enemy with this sort of gung-ho attitude.

Hi from Spain, I think these pilots acted like they were playing video games without taking into consideration that they were killing innocent civilians..it looks like they were laughing and enjoying shooting at that people. These pilots involved in this massacre should held accountable for what they did, I'm appaled after wachting this video.

By the way, in case anyone wonders why soldiers often come back totally messed up in the head, the video is a good example. Assuming that at least some of those participating in the action have any conscience, and I don't doubt that they do, this will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

I'm grateful not to have been put into that situation.

Julia makes a good point. Kauzlarich is best known for his ESPN interview about the death of Pat Tilman in a friendly fire incident. He slams the family of Tillman for being atheists and blames their persistent questions about the government cover-up of their son's death as a disfunction based in their lack of faith in a Christian god. Why is he still in charge of anything>

The US military killed some more un-embedded journalists? Gosh, what a non-surprise.

I wonder what the journalists were attempting to report on. I wonder what they had told Reuters just before they were killed.

What I did not see or read about - reports of weapons found on scene by the ground troops - were the two men furthest across the street carrying AK47's? Probably not, or the military would have pointed to that evidence.

Agreed that this group did not show body language that showed any real tension to their activities. This video should be used as a training tape for all troops - those killing remotely, and those on the ground. Lots of lessons here. Troops should always behave as if they are being filmed, this won't win any hearts and minds for peace - its a great piece for terrorist recruitment.

All that said, this appears to be a huge tragedy that would affect thousands of lives were it not on video, and now that it is on video, it will affect millions of lives - not in a good way. I believe the majority of Americans like myself are sorry that the Iraq War happened. We tried to vote the Bush administration out to stop this tragic error on the USA's part. It did not happen soon enough. We will do our best as a people to keep the overly aggressive, ignorant, unapologetic, politicians out of office. This is not what our country is about.

Just to put this in perspective, 5000+ allied POWs killed by RAF airplanes in 1945

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_Arcona

Are the RAF referred to as "cowboys" or "gung ho"? or does that only happen if you kill far less people?

@Bob Howes
Innocents get kill in war. There can be no more poignant truth. A soldier filled with testosterone and adrenaline are going to make mistakes. I know that Aussie soldiers did so in Vietnam.
This is regrettable but when you are in a war zone, combatant or no, you assume certain risks and one of those risks that you will get killed by hostile or friendly fire.
Are you any less outraged by Daniel Pearl being beheaded by radical Muslims live on the internet?

Using/comparing an atrocity committed by one group (i.e. Daniel Pearl's murder) to justify or make an atrocity committed by our soldiers seem less atrocious doesn't work....both acts are disgusting, revolting and should not have happened - no matter who committed them.

I don't get the 'they did it, too' or 'they did it worse' arguments....they do not justify or make the soldiers actions right!

Our being American and 'claiming' to do the right thing - doesn't automatically make it right.

My last comment also goes towards the comments about it happening in other wars and by other people......it's still not right, no matter how you look at it.

This is a war crime and BTW: this happened in 2007 during Bush.
It's disgusting how they were gloating over the radio as if it were a video game.

For the record, I have spent time in quite a number of war zones and am well aware of the "testosterone and adrenalin". However, in my experience, American soldiers seem to suffer far more from this than any other army I've encountered.

Put it this way, I've never seen any other nationality cheering and joking when they've killed somebody--but this was a common occurrence with Americans.

@Lubna - There is a side of me that feels I should have watched this video, at least to be a witness, but I know my limitations and I'm relieved to know that I'm not alone in being unable to watch it. It really is sickening enough just to know this happened, and sad to realize it isn't an isolated incident.

I'm puzzled at this attitude of "Please, this is nothing, X number of people were killed in this war or that war, or in such and such incident." Is the idea being posited that we have seen much violence, war, and brutality already, so we should be used to it? The more I see what we do to each other as a species, the less I worry about the planet being overpopulated. Our own human nature appears to take care of that problem.

Again, the left doesn't understand intentional, vs. unintential. If these was a delibate attack, then it would be worse than if it were unintentional. The military made a mistake. But that's not the same as beheading Daniel Pearl on video. That was deliberate. They didn't accidentally cut his head off, they deliberately did. That the left cannot see the difference between accidental and intentional, shows something quite clearly.

I couldn't see a gun anywhere, I saw cameras etc, but no guns. I 'could' forgive it as a mistake, I wasn't there but what I cannot forgive is the way they talk about these 'people', it was disgusting, begging to kill people helping out a shot person is just disgusting.

They didn't even feel bad that they had hurt a couple of kids.

Gung-ho and cowboy refers to the attitude of the killers. When soldiers laugh and gloat while killing another human being, it shows they are not mentally fit to operate weapons. I agree with Nora, this is the kind of behaviour you would expect to see (and I have seen) in an online video game.

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Salaam again gang,
Just to make a quick point, this war was imposed on the Iraqi people by those who once upon a time claimed to be their heroic saviours from the evil dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, and yet take a look at what our ''heroic saviours'' are doing in this video, very impressive eh ???? With my love... Yours sincerely, Lubna N in Baghdad...

@Steve - I do understand the difference between intentional and unintentional....begging for permission to shoot rescuers trying to save a dying man on the sidewalk tends to put it towards intentional....sorry, but you aren't going to convince me that this was a good and honorable act.

Steve, left right or center, the cover-up screams louder than words. If you are so sure it is only leftists that are curious about the truth, how did we get a voice vote out of a republican congress to release CIA files?

@At 5:24pm on 06 Apr 2010, nora wrote:

"Julia makes a good point. Kauzlarich is best known for his ESPN interview about the death of Pat Tilman in a friendly fire incident. ..."

Those leaders who "cover-up" are well rewarded in the US Military, for example, the current Commander in Afghanistan helped in that Pat Tilman cover-up before he was promoted.

And General Colin Powell helped in the cover-up of the Mai Lai massacre during the Viet Nam war when he was only something like a Colonel.

People need to stop applying the "tu quoque" argument technique. It doesn't matter how brutal or how often deaths occur at the hands of others in the past as it doesn't give us the right to take our own.

Furthermore, the Fourth Geneva Conventions states that shooting at unarmed people who are transporting and treating the wounded is explicitly prohibited. The pilots broke international law.

Well said @Mike in Seattle

Wars bring out the beast in men. It is a very sad commentary. However this tragedy was an accident but this does not lessen the pain, suffering and anguish of the relatives of the soldiers killed!

Ross et al, can we ask that your guests not blame the victims for being shot over a mile away by helicopter? I really expect more from the BBC than simply, "she was wearing a short skirt, she deserved it".

And once again WHYS picks a topic that makes the US look negative. There were so many other topics that could have been picked today that don't even get mentioned on the front page. What about mine safety (Chinese miners and American miners are trapped right now)? What about Tiger Woods' return to golf? What about the earthquake in Mexico/the US? If this had happened with any other country's troops, especially those of the UK, WHYS would not have picked this topic to focus on.

@Lisa from PA - though the items you mentioned are tragic and possibly interesting...the gravity of these kinds of military actions can not be ignored - I applaud WHYS for taking up the subject and allowing us to discuss it. FYI - if you really are interested in Tiger Woods there are thousands of news programs/blogs/forums discussing him....personally this is a heck of a lot more important to me than Tiger Woods

I agree there is a big difference of deliberate and mistake, between the deliberate murder of Pearl and the accidental/ignorant killing of civilians. However, the war on Iraq was deliberate and there are several examples of deliberate individual crimes against the Iraqi people (raping an Iraqi child after killing her parents does not happen accidentally). What this particular video re-inforces is a recurring theme of the aggressive (gungho, cowboy etc) mindset of the US military (celebrating and laughing at killing people) that leads to the automatic assumption that all Iraqis are legitimate targets (e.g. the good samaritan helping the wounded man), and the mindset of the US politicians which lie to cover-up the crimes. This mindset does not come about by accident either.

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"Gung-ho and cowboy refers to the attitude of the killers. When soldiers laugh and gloat while killing another human being, it shows they are not mentally fit to operate weapons."

Ah, I see, so if they have an american accent, they are war criminals, but if they are RAF Hawker Tempest pilots, after sinking a German ship with 5000+ allied POWs, and then strafing the survivors in the water, so long as they have a British accent, and talk about tea and drinking a pint of bitter, it's fine. Got it.

2007 Sadar City...the targets had AKs and RPGs...using "civilian vans" and children is a common tactic...

in any case to have the BBC pontificating on the morality or immorality of war is the pinnacle of hypocrisy...

95 percent of the what is occurring in the middle east, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India is the legacy of the British Empire. The English are up to their arm pits in blood and immorality on all these political and war fronts.

A British pilot's comments about strafing allied prisoners in water after they sank the transport ship they were on:

""We used our cannon fire at the chaps in the water...we shot them up with 20 mm cannons in the water. Horrible thing, but we were told to do it and we did it. That's war," said Allan Wyse, formerly of 193 Fighter Squadron."

The people they fired on were allied prisoners, some of them, their own countrymen.. "That's war".

Wow, this speaker is dismissing the soldiers actions ....sorry but you aren't convincing me. I also do not agree with the idea that the soldiers were not showing enthusiasm - yes they were and not acknowledging that seems like blatant denial of reality. They begged to shoot unarmed people in a van.

A question for Sal -

Can you explain how shooting that van wasn't a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention? It was an unarmed vehicle picking up the wounded. Explain to me how that is a threat. Explain to me how that is allowed under the rules of war.

@Lisa from PA

One aspect that maybe WHYS could look at is comparing media coverage of this in the US vs. other countries. I was one of the listeners who suggested this story and, at the time I submitted it, this was the lead story on media here and other places...while it was being ignored on CNN.

As for your other stories, do you really think Tiger Woods is more important? What debate is there in earthquakes or mine disasters? We all agree they are horrible things.

...and, when British soldiers were caught abusing locals in Basra they were put on trial, unlike the crew of this helicopter. Perhaps this would be less of a story if the US military would take responsibility for their actions rather than attempt a cover up. That's a major aspect of this story, perhaps even more important than the incident itself.

The speaker keeps acting like the soldiers knew these were the people who killed their fellow soldiers - in fact, they did not know this.

Notice there is so much mor eoutrage from leftists about this, which took place years ago, vs the DAILY suicide bombings that religious fanatics do every single day?

how come lefties seem to ignore those and focus on these events?

I want to know why an attack helicopter ~1000m away from this group of people was the initiator of "contact" (in the military sense). Are low-resolution optics at great distance the only tools available for distinguishing civilians from insurgents? Why couldn't the military get a recon unit to ascertain whether that particular group was hostile before killing them all from a great distance?

Get commander Salamander off the air. His sensational views bring nothing to this coonversation.

Where do you find these guys BBC. I have to say worst program on the BBC which somehow is still on air.

So who is answerable for this?

@Steve - You really seem to think this is a left/right issue....sorry to disagree but this is a human issue - those people on the ground are someone's family - someone's father, daughter, son, brother, uncle....people, real people.

I have no compassion whatsoever for these people "being under stress" or having to make split second decisions. If they cannnot handle stress, they have no business with weapons in their hands. Perhaps some of you bleeding hearts that do think we should show understanding will open your eyes when they pull a "Timothy McVeigh" in your own back yard. "This is regrettable but this happens in war" is no excuse. The U.S. never had any business in Iraq. Anyone stupid or criminal minded enough to sign up with the U.S. military during this war does not deserve understanding or compassion.

Can you ask your Icelanding guest if she would consider herself a communist or socialist? She said she's an "activist", so maybe people can get a better picture of her and any agenda if she described what she is?

Is it normal to attack an unarmed person aiding an injured person even if they are supposed to be enemy combatants?

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Boy this "Sal" sure is a terrific spin doctor isn't he? He sounds just like "Bagdad Bob" did for Saddam Hussein, during the initial invasion.

Now what would a Navy Commander know about Army affairs? Is this part of some April Fools joke about "ships of the desert", (camels)?

We ought to at least have an Army blogger defending the Army.

Would be interesting, if you can leak a video like this to get your antiwar message out, I am shocked that antiabortion protesters haven't released videos of abortions. Maybe that's soon to come.

There is a huge difference between the unpleasant language used towards the victims and the complete disregard they have for fellow human lives. When the soldiers will a severely injured man to give them a reason to take his life it goes beyond emotions and adrenaline running high. I do not think that anyone who could have such an attitude to others is fit to wield a deadly weapon.

It is no surprise that there is such a large amount of anti-American sentiment across the world when so many incidents like this occur and attempts to justify them are then made.

War is raw and violent. We cannot watch a 6 minute video and be certain of what was happening in the air or on the ground. to do so is does no one justice.

I watched this video yesterday and I did not know there were children until AFTER wikileaks zoomed into some still shots and circled some dark shadows in the van. Even then, I couldn't really tell what the shadows were. It was afterwards, when the troops on the ground came in, that children were identified to any of the soldiers.

I think the soldiers did their job. It was not gratuitous. They called in for permission to shoot and only shot after identifying people carrying guns and aiming RPGs at them.

People celebrate and exclaim relief when their enemies and associated threats are eliminated. Remember the Arabs dancing in the streets after the World Trade Center fell on 9-11?

This is appalling! It reminds me of the useless killings carried out by other regimes around the globe, for no real reason. Like China and the Tibetans. Obviously our military has now lowered it self to the level of American Cops. No concern for anyone else as long as they cover there behinds when it comes to dealing with their mistakes. And makes sure their safety comes first.

A Court Marshall is in order! I think it's time that the ICC charges them for these crimes. If Obama won't do anything, lets charge him with complacency and get Bush behind bars also. Acts like this make me glad I left the Air Force. My father ( rest his soul ) an Air Force Lifer would be even more embarrassed, angry and sickened by our government than I am.

The two things about this video that are really disturbing to me is when the armored vehicle purposely drives over the dead body. That is clearly unacceptable! The other is the shooting of the man that was trying to come to the aid of the injured man. WAR CRIME!!!!

I'm a an innocent bystander father with my two children in my vehicle in Sadr City in 2007 and I've seen a group of armed men hit with a burst of heavy machine gun fire, I am not driving my vehicle and my children into harms way...

...it is not going to happen!

Regarding the vocalizations of pilots(s): Indeed, maybe it is the heat of battle and adrenaline, but it is settled clinical fact that the rates of PTSD are lower in those fighters who are detached from face to face combat—This includes pilots and sea fairing persons. To these pilots the lives of those on the ground are abstract concepts and don't reek of the psychologically dehumanizing-ness of face to face war. It's a quite logical step to conclude that yes this sort of warfare is commensurate with a video game.

An illegal occupation to begin with. Rules of engagement gone. Of course its all the local Iraqi's fault (sarcasm) for being out on the streets in their own country with a gun for protection. Its not like there was a war on or anything...even a civil war...oh.

Your icelandic guest is so biased as to be a horrible guest. Can you repeat her full name so that we can google her? I cannot wait to see what "organizations" she's a member of....

I just watched the video and i can't place the blame on the military. if it wasn't pointed out to me the children in the front seat i wouldn't have been able to know that they were kids.
I feel for the innocent victims but the only thing this that this video indicates to me is the degree of difficulty that any military would have in a conflict zone such as this where the enemy is not in uniform yet they say that they are soldiers and they are using civilians as shields and at the same time they themselves kill the innocent.
I could not and would not blame the military in this situation because if it were reverse I'm sure you or i would do the same thing.

Commander "Salamander" has his posture mixed up. The Americans are not the victims, nor are we the "good guys" - Americans are the agressors in this plot. I do pity the wrongful position these boys are put in, they are engaged in an unjust and unjustifiable "mission"... whatever that "mission" may been.

War is wrong. Murder is wrong. Our casualties are a tiny fraction of the hordes of innocents murdered.

Apache Helicopters don't carry artilery, no helicopter does. When your guest is dishonest about her descriptions, how can you trust anything she says? She said the AH-64 carries "heavy artillery".

If the US military is so certain that there is no war crimes involved, and that they are justified in shooting these Iraqis, then why did they not release this footage earlier?

The US military spokesperson claimed that "coalition forces were clearly engaged in combat operations against a hostile force." I suppose if you thought ALL Iraqis are hostile, then this claim might be correct. However, there was no gun aimed at the helicopters. If these were insurgents, then why are they suntering down the streets? They clearly did not anticipate to be shot at. The "combat" was entirely one-sided. If this is a battle, then it was a very easy one for the US military.

To commander sal: shame on you! In your entire conversation, you gave no thought to any Iraqis.

I agree that this is a very bad event and god help all who had a part in this. but does Gitta know how many people has now injured and or killed by posting this video? How many people have now been polarized into now fightinh against each other in this was, thier minds may have been made up to now get involved, shame on you Gitta! war is a bad thing but now your weapon has gone off and many will now pay for our deed

Steve, would you mind responding to the people addressing your points?

I respect that the wikileaks journalists have followed up with the victims of this incident, but I would feel more comfortable about their purpose if they had also followed up with the US soldiers involved. What is their story in the aftermath?

To the host of the show: yes, video game makers consult military to make their computers more 'real'. But that DOES NOT make a war a video game.

To Commander Sal: you too have an agenda. You are PRO WAR. Your agenda is to protect your institution - the US military. To justify what was always an unjustifable war. Be very clear that this is YOUR agenda.

I do not believe that the cameras mounted on their weapons do not have ability to zoom in on suspect insurgents to see if they were carrying any weapon. If they can shoot form air with such accuracy at least they need a better lens.
During the 2006-2007 time frame many people in Iraq picked up weapons but do we all believe they were all insurgents, what about the possibility that they picked up weapons in self defense against the insurgents who were indiscriminately murdering hundreds everyday. Maybe they were drwan out in the open as well listening to the gun shots and trying to help/rescue those in trouble.
War is brutal, no one doubts that there will always be collateral damage. But what bothers me is the cover up that ensued following this event and the how reluctant the US military to make this public. This video was no means 'classified information' hence the public should have had known it earlier than later.
We need journalists that risk their lives to get us the truth. So we definitely can't blame them for being in that situation.

Ros, in every other show you treat suspects of crimes, as "Allegedly" committed crimes, for fear of defamation suits in the UK. Here, you are promoting a website called "collateralmurder", the website has convicted them, you are promoting them. No "alleged" involved in murder or warcrimes, just stating the term. Any other show, you would have made comments about "this only being alleged" for legal purposes. And yes, the website is highly biased, as well as seeking money from people.

Your show's guests have presumed the US military guilty.

Sal is assuming a whole lot and stating what he believes is the state of mind of the soldiers...I don't think you can assume that - all you can go by is their action, their tone and their words....their tone is of sport hunting and not of the real gravity of the situation.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

@Steve - you are appalled at the bias of the woman speaking, why aren't you upset by Sal's bias? Is that a double standard?