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I think Yohan did an excellent job responding to this video in the TOTA fourms so I'm just going to copy his post...
| quote: | Originally posted by Yohan
Self defence (of you and any friendlies) and perceived hostile intent.
It is a terrible video to watch. And I feel terrible for those that died in this incident.
Good job on whoever edited this video to ensure it is unbiased as possible *sarcasm*
There are a lot of unanswered questions from this vid. Keep in mind that if you're going to make a judgement on these two pilots, you should do so from their point of view, not using what other info and facts that you know.
So you have two Apaches flying in an area. First question would be, what is the tactical situation? Are there any friendly forces in the area? Is this neighbourhood known to be full of enemies? Has there been contact between friendly and enemy forces in the period of time before the video starts?
None of these questions can be answered from the video. If any of my questions are answerd yes, then the pilots would definitely be more looking for hostiles. (And it did sound like there were some Bradley elements in that area, but don't know exactly how far away)
You must understand that one bad judgement call and one of their buddies goes home in a casket because they didn't do their job properly. Adding all the adrenaline and shit happening all around them, not like us sitting calm in front of a computer, yeah it's harder to make critical decisions in split second notice, when lives may be at stake.
So, the next question would be, did these pilots take reasonable precautions to positively identify their targets as hostiles.
It's not just whether these guys had weapons (or perceived weapons) in their hands; it's also exactly what they were doing.
If there was indeed a firefight prior to this incident, normal reaction for civillians would be to FLEE AND HIDE from the battlefield.
If you run TOWARDS the battle, the pilots would have every reason to believe that you are showing hostile intent, because that's just not what normal people do.
Yes, these dudes are journalists and they are just trying to get a story and to their job, but think as those pilots. You don't know these guys are journalists because these journalists probably didn't tell the army that they are going to be in the area. (Otherwise, these Reuters guys would be travelling with an army unit)
These guys holding as far as the pilots can tell RPG/AK47s, look like hostiles (because the enemy wears same clothing as civillians) and moving towards the battle. (well, as far as we can tell)
What is your conclusion?
As for the van, similar story. It's good on this dude to try to help out a fellow dude, but if there is a battle, stay the hell away from that area. For all the pilots knew, since they already IDed their targets as insurgents, anyone helping these guys are also insurgents. Whether there were children or not, well, small heads barely seen through shadows of the van and helluva lot going on taking up attention of the pilots.
As for the attitude and tone of the pilots, of course they are going to feel good about themselves. As far as they knew, they just whacked a bunch of insurgents who were going to try to kill a bunch of their buddies.
As for the quotes by army officers regarding the incident, I'm going to bet they only had statements and the vids from the incidents to go by, and did not know that there were journalists in the area. Information is rarely complete in battlefield. So as far as these army guys are concerned, they just whacked a bunch of bad guys.
These pilots may be just couple of cowboys wanting to up their kill counts. But you dont know. I don't know. We don't have all the information. So, my opinion is that yes, we can discuss what happened here based upon what we know, but we should also be more aware of what we DONT know and make our judgement accordingly. |
BTW, Yohan ships out for Afganistan this week.
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| quote: | Originally posted by RickyM
you're just a shit version of Moral Hazard. At least he knows what he's talking about. |
| quote: | Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
lol, i love it when moral feels the need to lay the smack down 
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