Support The Troops?

This is one of the most horrifying things I have ever seen. WikiLeaks released this video on their website today, which shows an Army helicopter firing at and killing Iraqi civilians. Those killed include a Reuters photographer and his driver, and then a man who stopped his van in an attempt to help the wounded. The soldiers opened fire on the man's van, which contained his two children who he was on his way to drop off at a tutoring session. The children were badly injured. The group of men fired upon were taking no hostile action, and the soldiers used as justification for the attack that many of them had AK-47's and RPG's, when in fact only one appeared to have a gun, and was not aiming it at the helicopter or behaving threateningly in any way.

The most horrifying thing about this video is perhaps the dialogue of the soldiers. At various points in the video, soldiers can be heard laughing as a tank runs over a corpse, approvingly saying "look at those dead bastards," "come on, let us shoot!" with a disgusting bloodlust present in the soldier's voice, and, upon learning of the injury of the children, saying "that's why you don't bring children to a battleground," with not a hint of remorse in their voices, and no shred of self-awareness on the part of the soldier who just essentially stated that no one anywhere in Baghdad is safe from them; it is all "a battleground."

The "few bad apples" theory is running thin, guys. Stories like this keep piling up and the media and military officials keep saying at every occasion that this is a case of a few individuals taking matters into their own hands and behaving in a way apart from the military code of conduct. However, it should be fairly obvious at this point that horrific acts like this are in fact standard operating procedure. Just listen to the calm in the soldiers' voices and see if you can still convince yourself that this is an abnormal event.

Support the troops? No thanks.