Please watch this disturbing film leaked by Wikileaks of an American helicopter executing a group of Iraqi civilians from the sky in 2007, including two journalists, and then blasting at the van--which carried two children--which came to try to rescue the wounded Iraqis lying bloody in the street.
I can't seem to go directly to the Wikileaks site--collateralmurder.com--so I've linked to the Gawker post containing this incredibly disturbing film. The Gawker point of view on this event is somewhat disappointing.
The tape was filmed by the American helicopter crew; and their loathesome chatter is really hard to listen to, but crystal clear. I want to make a cogent condemnation of the American war against Iraq and its ripples and aftermath but after watching this video I find most of the words sucked out of me.
Welcome to The Cahokian... A thousand years ago Cahokia — across the Mississippi from what is now St. Louis — was one of the biggest cities in the world. Now it's an empty green spot next to the highway. I'm a middle-aged gay man living in New York City, center of the world, future footnote on somebody's future map. Welcome to the new world.
I haven't been able to watch this.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame you.
ReplyDeleteI'm haunted by its callousness: somebody actually says: "I just drove over a body heh heh"
I did post a comment on Gawker that tried to articulate how it made me feel: "These were people walking around their own country while an uninvited foreign aircraft flies around looking at people to shoot--UNPROVOKED. This foreign aircraft, by the way, is from a country that strongly believes people have a right to walk around WITH GUNS.
Do you hear these coldhearted scumbags ("Support our troops" fuck YOU) talking about shooting wounded men on the ground? And laughing? Do you hear them saying they can't get a a good shot because these guys "have gone behind a building" (preparing the lie in their heads that these guys are guilty of something because they're taking evasive action) when what has happened is that the helicopter has flown out of view?
Do you think that the Iraqis who just saw their loved ones gunned down randomly out of the sky feel any differently than those who watched their loved ones die randomly on 911?
Disgusting."
But it's only so many words. If you can't bear to watch the video you definitely shouldn't read any comment threads on the NYT or elsewhere about it. Will make you very sad as it did me.
It is tempting to buy into the right's bullshit and believe that we (you, me and the other good guys) are at war with EVIL. Reading comments has become a psychically dangerous business. I read an article online about psychopaths. It wasn't a particularly political article, just an explanation that some highly successful people seem to be unable to relate to the feelings of other human beings along with some crap from the DSM-IV. The comments section was full of people expressing their admiration for sociopaths. Ayn Rand type bullshit about the strength of men who were not afraid to leave the herd behind. Dozens of people were convinced that humanity depends on sociopaths for it's continued existence. I have not felt altogether right since reading those comments.
ReplyDelete