there is no doubt that Manning did not adhere to the rules and standards of the job he chose to
And, thank God for that. The exposure of war crimes… The exposure of governmental, quasi-governmental and military overreach/corruption trump your beloved standards and practices.
Look, if Manning had exposed Abu Ghraib or similar wrongdoing I would think this had more to do with patriotism, conscience and honor (and no, the highly edited video of the journalists being killed does not qualify in my mind as anything but a sad result of walking with heavily armed men in a war zone.)
You have not properly researched (or been properly briefed) on the “collateral murder” video.
the highly edited video
First of all, many claim that the full version video was edited or hidden by Wikileaks, but that’s a lie. The full version was released by Wikileaks in its entirety along with the short version at the same time on the same damn web page. The long version was NOT edited by Wikileaks and was shared just as it came to them via the leak.
heavily armed men
You mean some armed escorts that regularly travel with journalists (including Americans) for their protection against insurgents? And, the so-called RPG that wasn’t really fired?
I’ve watched the fuller version many times before and never see anything that appears to be an RPG in the video. As the camera hangs off the corner of the building, it looks like a zoom lens camera and one can even see the lens reflect light. (The Canon brand zoom lens in question was found on the scene, BTW)
You can even hear on the audio where a soldier blurts that someone shot the so-called RPG (camera), but there’s very clearly no smoke whatsoever coming from the camera nor the surrounding area. Sounds like a trigger-happy person is making any excuse to fire upon them. Have you ever seen an RPG that doesn’t emit smoke? Right, you haven’t.
But, what anyone can also see very clearly (and is very DAMNING) is where the group casually walks in plain sight within the middle of the street (and this is even after one of them clearly points out the Apache helicopter earlier in the video and many look straight at it).
I mean, look at this full version video at 1:43
Screenshot:
(Imgur: The magic of the Internet)
Video:
Can you tell me with even a remotely straight face this is somehow evasive behavior?
They are fucking casually strolling in plain view of an Apache helicopter without aiming anything at it, taking cover, running, etc. They’re just standing and walking around in the middle of the street in broad daylight in front of an Apache helicopter in clear view. No running. No taking cover…
Is that the behavior of insurgents? Much less ones that just supposedly shot at an Apache helicopter with an RPG in broad daylight? It’s clearly not.
They are acting like people who have no fear of being shot unprovoked by U.S. forces. You know, just like ANY journalists would do with an armed escort?
More on the RPG?
Ethan McCord is the name of soldier who says he found an RPG on the scene. Since it’s never shown in the video, it’s extremely debatable how the RPG may have gotten there before he arrived.
First of all, he wasn’t the first soldier on the scene and it could have very well been planted there by another U.S. soldier after reports of kids and civilian adults being injured and killed already came through (to cover their asses).
If you (or anyone else here wants to) deny that planting weapons in these situations ever happens, then you need to educate yourself. It’s called “drop-weapons”, look into it. Don’t blame me for suspecting this, blame the corrupt soldiers that use drop-weapons on a regular basis.
Also, the RPG he found may have been left by insurgents earlier at the scene (but I’ll admit that’s less likely). Either way, the evidence that this specific group that was fired upon by the Apache had an RPG is flimsy at best. And, if you watch the fuller video, no one shoots an RPG at the helicopter or anyone else.
What’s also odd, is Ethan only speaks of one RPG, but then later an internal military “investigator” said there was two RPGs, one loaded, etc. – I guess they’ll just keep adding more weapons as time goes on?
Speaking of Ethan McCord… While he did state (after finding that possible drop-weapon RPG) that the initial attack was OK, he also stated that the attack on the van that injured the two children was WRONG.
That’s one of many reasons why many focus on the second part of the attack on the van.
Ethan McCord is a soldier who was there who stated on the record that it was wrong, it was a mistake and it shouldn’t have happened. Ethan said warning shots should have been fired first on the van. He also said he was verbally abused by commanding officers for his efforts to help the children after finding them injured. How fucked up is that?
Civilians with kids in a van were driving to pick up family members when they stumbled upon an injured civilian in the road who asked to be taken to a hospital. For trying to help an injured civilian, the children and adult civilians in the van got injured and killed by trigger-happy war criminals (“Let me engage!”, "Come on, let us shoot!).
No weapons were found in the van after the people were massacred and there wasn’t any shown in the video. The injured civilian the people in the van were trying to help had no weapon or any other sign he was an insurgent, either.
Do you now understand the issue and why (at the very least) the attack on the van was WRONG?
(Like most of the rest of the world does?)
It’s really sick to see Americans who keep defending this attack and it only hurts our standing (and security) around the world. At the very least, Crazyhorse 18 never should have engaged that van the way they did, period. Instead of making excuses, the USA needs to apologize for this.
Or… I guess we can just keep persecuting patriotic whistleblowers instead, huh?
