complete shock: video of troops destroying iraqi car

found this on a joke site, really horrified if the owner of the site considers this a joke. its a report of US troops shooting at and then running over with a tank a car owned by an Iraqi who stole WOOD!


http://media.ebaumsworld.com/index.php?e=dontloot.wmv

(requires media player)

Can't remember which one off the top of my head. Nice that some jackass can laugh at it, as the car belonged to a relative of those caught taking the wood, it was his only source of income as he was a taxi driver.
Scott

sorry didn't view the clip before I posted. I was going on memory the clip explains the whole thing and is quite disturbing.
Scott

No Joke

This was broadcast by PBS (Frontline, I think) about a year ago, and barely rated a mention anywhere that I could see. Now that there is a lot of other stuff coming out as well, hopefully more people will be offended by it.

But the fact is, it happened not long after the war started, so instances such as this aren't just "because of the 4 people hung from the bridge" as so many are trying to claim (not you, pres2032, I mean the wingnuts).

It's been going on since the start, and would seem to be fairly entrenched.

What really amazes me is the 'kids' who did it. They look barely old enough to have a licence, let alone drive a tank.

On Edit: Ok, four others beat me :-)

This war is making monsters out of good people on both sides. So many different types of casualties.

The "If you loot, this is what happens" guy seemed to me to be completely comfortable with his philosophy.

THIS is the reason we're going to lose there (and anywhere else). Our leaders are arrogant and they send stupid kids to deal with international issues. Why should anybody respect us when we do things like this?

As well as a couple of the others that were with him. I just don't think that these soldiers are trained well enough in the art of conversation with Iraqis (obviously), but perhaps just as importantly, with themselves. That clip seems to be a microcosm of it's guiding administration - "Don't talk, 'cause I'm not going to listen". I don't believe that every American soldier there is an a**hole and irresponsible. (I'm not saying you do, please understand that).

There has to be a great number of troops out there every day that think something to the effect of "Whoa, we can't do that". Or "I shouldn't allow that to happen" that don't say anything because the culture of communication is bankrupt.

Conversely, what about the owner of the car? He could be your every day Iraqi/American/Canadian that loves his family and just wants to go to work every day, feed his family and live life. Now his source of income is gone. Tomorrow he's looking for work, is mad about yesterday and yells at a few troops at a rally. The guy next to him gets shot, he picks up a rock to throw - and all of a sudden you've got two good people out of fear and frustration throwing rocks and shooting at each other.

It's a bit of a stretch illustration but I'm sure you can see where I'm coming from. It seems like a good number of American troops signed on to get an education and ended up in Najaf.

One thing that I think we forget is that while we consistently remind those around us that not all Iraqis are terrorists or Baathist dead-enders, etc. we don't extend the same courtesy to the soldiers. People on both sides are getting caught up in the cyclone and it's affecting their decision making.

(sorry for the long-winded reply).

People are people...each one is an individual. The Iraqis aren't all "bad" any more than our soldiers are all "good", and vice-versa.

However, I've known military people and, unfortunately, this kind of attitude is how the military indoctrinates people. It doesn't change all of them, thankfully, but this sort of behavior is a direct result of the training we give our troops.

...and I didn't find your reply long-winded at all. Welcome to DU!

Unfortunately, they generally have fit into that attitude column. Must be weird to try to convince someone you're trying to help while you point a gun at them.

Maybe the powers that be in the ivory tower will realise newer training is needed.

E

The thing that disturbed me so about it was its resemblance to a video game.

And then after that, my students were writing about their past (and present) addictions to video games.


Cher

The game that set a new standard for violent video games; and I've seen my share of violent video games.

Idiotic "war" games that make kids think it's all about running around and shooting guns. Next thing they know, they're waking up at Landstuhl with no legs.

never played that one, though...but i am a 5-year CS player

and they sounded so proud that they had destroyed this car . . . and they took such joy in its destruction . .


Torture Accomplished

I get the feeling that given the opportunity, the soldiers in the clip would do the exact same thing in the streets of LA or Chicago. And will enjoy it too.

Support the troops indeed.

at the bottom says it's playing.

a bunch of soldiers catch a few Iraqis who were stealing wood and drive a tank over their car to "teach them a lesson." The asshat soldier talking to the camera says, with this sickening self-satisfied look, "We try to stop them from lootin' and they don't understand, so we'll take their car and we'll crush it... See, that's what you get when you loot!"

The owner of the car was a taxi driver, says the narrator, and that car was his livelihood.

Sickening. What a bunch of assholes. "Oh yeah, let's teach these ignorant brown-skins a lesson!"

so I don't think that's the right point to focus on.

Skin color is not the issue here.

Oh, right.

But they were certainly acting as though the people were too ignorant to understand anything: "Do you know what a school is?"

and lording themselves over the powerless. Humiliating them.

It's a seductive thing...power....

lake looks like Martial Law run amok w/ very insensitive
people putting their boot on the faces of the weak.

It's not right to loot or steal wood but that "punishment"
was administered in an overhanded, cruel and unusual way.

Stealing wood would be a misdemeanor here (I think, if under
a certain dollar amount) and you would have to go to court.

There, some young soldiers can crush your car for this?

That's just unbelievable.

What annoys me the most about the video is that the wood that has supposedly been stolen is crushed along with the car! What does the rightful owners of this wood think about this? Does it even have an owner?

kinda makes the whole principle of the actions pointless. The point was to punish and I would think return the wood. Instead they destroy the wood while taking the punishment to an extreme. So not only did they destroy the thing that needed to be returned, they pissed the "criminals" off even more, so they'll take unfortunatly bigger action against our troops.

It sure would be a shame to see people held accountable for their actions.

still shocking nonetheless

We are the pariah of the world. We are the new Soviet Union.