A video showing U.S. Apache helicopters killing 12 people, including two Reuters news staff, is painful to watch but an investigation into the attack was very thorough, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday. ...
The stark helicopter gunsight video of the July 12, 2007, attack has been widely viewed around the world on the Internet since its release on April 5 by the group Wikileaks, which promotes leaks to fight government and corporate corruption.
Some international law and human rights experts say the Apache helicopter crew in the footage may have acted illegally. The video includes an audio track of a helicopter crew conversation. Many have been shocked by the images and some of the fliers' comments.
"It's obviously a hard thing to see. It's painful to see, especially when you learn after the fact what was going on. But you -- you talked about the fog of war. These people were operating in split-second situations," Gates said.
The U.S. military said an investigation shortly after the incident found that U.S. forces were unaware of the presence of news staff and thought they were engaging armed insurgents, mistaking a camera for a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.
There were armed men, as I understand the incident. And there was a battle going on at the time. Just because some Reuters idiots decided to embed with the enemy to glorify their murder sprees does not mean our troops did anything illegal.
And war is killing. What do the critics expect? Tom and Jerry violence where the enemy is blackened and flattened, but who spring back a moment later to run off?
The important thing is that our leadership is standing by our troops. If troops can't kill enemies, how are we to fight and win?
