Utter BS. The reason you NOW can say that among killed are journalists is because they were identified as journalists AFTER THE FACT. But when soldiers sees groups of armed men, their natural instincts will compel them to assume the worst -- that they are looking at men with hostile intents, not journalists. Like it or not, my young friend, the reality of a combat zone is to shoot first and shoot well. Questions are irrelevant.
I have seen enough in post-Saddam Kuwait to know that if it was possible for US to Youtube just a fraction of what I saw of what happened to Kuwaitis done by the Iraqi Army, it would make this little video pales in comparison. So you go right on and enjoy your little chance at making US look inhuman. For those of us who know the reality of war, the muslims in the ME are no better.
Neither did I make a comparison between Saddam's army nor did I claim that they should have known better.
I said that you can legitimately claim but the consequences and the results must force you to wonder what has happened. That introspection is missing from your posts.
I never argued that any other army has had a better record or that the US is the most evil nation on earth. You are putting words in my mouth and I'm okay with accepting the fact that you must have to deal daily with dozens, if not hundreds, of members shouting at you about what they perceive as US imperialism and injustice. The fact of the matter is that armies from other countries have had worse track records (Imperial Japanese Army in China and many other cases) but you have to accept that
this specific case clearly demonstrates both the ease with which the soldiers were killing (dare I say with disregard to human life) and error of judgment.
Firstly, it can be argued that in the war zone, a soldier has less to care for the lives of the enemies for he has to deal with killing humans and has to toughen himself. This is the reality of war and I agree with you almost entirely.
But the pilots here were cracking half jokes as they were killing in some videogame. That is downright inhumane.
Secondly, the split second decision can indeed lead to error of judgement. In this case though, they had time, ample time, at their hands and the civilians were visible throughout from the helicopter gun sight. Nobody cared trying to verify the "RPG" or the "AK 47s".
There is nothing wrong in accepting the fact that soldiers made a grave mistake and killed civilians and journalists. If found guilty of intentional murder, they should face the music. If on the other hand, they are found to have violated the rules of engagement and killed the civilians while misinterpreting them as armed, they obviously have no sentence to worry about; they should focus on dealing with what they did and coming to terms with their huge mistake.
Defending such an act and hiding the facts was all but natural and expected from the DoD. They won't go public saying that they're soldiers had killed civilians. But as the facts have come out, be boys and accept the mistakes. Review your rules of engagement and be sorry for what you did. Ask forgiveness from the heirs of the dead (and god if somebody believes in one).