US military killing, joyfully

This is not something I could not discuss. It is incredibly disturbing, even if it’s nowhere near novel, new, unprecedented, unheard of, or surprising. A shock, most definitely. But, unfortunately, expected whenever you have the evil called war.

On 5 April 2010, WikiLeaks “released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad — including two Reuters news staff.” Go to collateralmurder.com and read it over. I urge you not to watch the video. Do not subject yourself to such disgusting evil. But read the transcript here. Trust me, the words of the military personnel talking through their parade of death is narration enough. The actual video is available but will vividly display the joyfilled, remorseless, hate-entrenched killing of noncombatant civilians.

You can see in the image the group of men. According to the shooters in the helicopter, these men were carrying weapons. That was enough to warrant shooting them (time stamp 2:13). But, they decided to swing around so the building wasn’t in their line of fire. While turning around one said “Yeah, we had a guy shoot—and now he’s behind the building” (2:23).

Well, he was right that the guy did “shoot.” However the guy was a photographer, shooting with a camera. Did that matter? No.

02:36	Just fuckin’, once you get on ‘em just open ‘em up.
02:38	All right.
02:40	I see your element, uh, got about four Humvees [Armored cars], uh, out along…
02:43	You’re clear.
02:44	All right, firing.
02:47	Let me know when you’ve got them.
02:49	Lets shoot.
02:50	Light ‘em all up.
02:52	Come on, fire!
02:57	Keep shoot, keep shoot. [keep shooting]
02:59	keep shoot.
03:02	keep shoot.
03:05	Hotel.. Bushmaster Two-Six, Bushmaster Two-Six, we need to move, time now!
03:10	All right, we just engaged all eight individuals.

One man survived the carnage, was wounded, and tried to crawl away. The helicopter fired on him again. A van pulled up to try and help the man. As they got him into the van, we get this:

07:18	Bushmaster; Crazyhorse. We have individuals going to the scene, looks like possibly uh picking up bodies and weapons.
07:25	Let me engage.
07:28	Can I shoot?
07:31	Roger. Break. Uh Crazyhorse One-Eight request permission to uh engage.
07:36	Picking up the wounded?
07:38	Yeah, we’re trying to get permission to engage.
07:41	Come on, let us shoot!
07:44	Bushmaster; Crazyhorse One-Eight.
07:49	They’re taking him.
07:51	Bushmaster; Crazyhorse One-Eight.
07:56	This is Bushmaster Seven, go ahead.
07:59	Roger. We have a black SUV-uh Bongo truck [van] picking up the bodies. Request permission to engage.
08:02	Fuck.
08:06	This is Bushmaster Seven, roger. This is Bushmaster Seven, roger. Engage.
08:12	One-Eight, engage.
08:12	Clear.
08:13	Come on!
08:17	Clear.
08:20	Clear.
08:21	We’re engaging.
08:26	Coming around. Clear.
08:27	Roger. Trying to uh…
08:32	Clear.
08:35	I hear ‘em co.. I lost ‘em in the dust.
08:36	I got ‘em.
08:41	I’m firing.
08:42	This is Bushmaster Forty got any BDA [Battle Damage Assessment] on that truck. Over.
08:44	You’re clear.
08:47	This is ah Crazyhorse. Stand by.
08:47	I can’t shoot for some reason.
08:49	Go ahead.
08:50	I think the van’s disabled.
08:53	Go ahead and shoot it.
08:54	I got an azimuth limit for some reason [gunner moved gunsight too far]
09:00	Go left.
09:03	Clear left.
09:15	All right, Bushmaster Crazyhorse One-Eight.
09:20	A vehicle appears to be disabled.
09:22	There were approximately four to five individuals in vehicle moving bodies.

The rest is incredibly disturbing, especially when they talk about the wounded children. But, this is not something Americans can hide from. No one, especially the Christians who have supported these wars, can turn away from this the way they did (and still do) with the horrors of torture.

Is war a necessary evil? Do you believe the military troops wearing the colors of the US are doing the work of Jesus?