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Collateral Murder Response

 


    This was only a 20-minute clip and it was one of the hardest 20 minutes to watch. To start off by saying the quote in the begging of the film “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ” -Georg Orwell is an amazing way to set up this film. On July 7th, 2007 attacks were conducted by the United States against Iraqi men. In the video, you watch and listen to American soldiers talk about men on the ground and you can see them through this screen which is small, and hard to make anything out of. You can hear the soldiers discuss that the men are armed and ready to use weapons on the soldiers. This is when the American soldier asks for permission to engage. While watching I was thinking to myself this makes sense there are armed men on the ground who look like they are ready to shoot an RPG at the helicopter why wouldn't they do something about it? While watching these men on the ground it's very difficult to make out important details, let alone a weapon. The soldiers asked for permission and started shooting the men. While they are there, the American soldiers are laughing and making jokes . After shooting these men a van comes up and tries to take the body of one of the wounded people on the ground. They then asked for permission and started shooting the men and the van. Once the team on land comes across the scene they come to find out two children were in the van and two journalists were among the people killed. This was a careless act of our United States Military that sickens me. The worst part is officials didn't seem sorry they blamed the people for not making it clear enough that they were journalists. It was our own soldiers' fault for mistaking a camera for a weapon of mass destruction. 

Overall, I understand that all governments make mistakes, but it's the aftermath that really upset me. This footage wasn't brought up until 3 years after the attack. The government's response didn't feel remorseful. I think this was a learning lesson for our government, but who knows what other incidents like this they are hiding from us. 


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