Because the Siftbot will remove unpopular videos that are submitted anyway, I'd be in favor for an alternative voting system. Perhaps "Keep vs Trash" as something like the abuse by the US Army in Iraq could cause; Upvote for wanting to raise awareness or Downvote for video content, however users may feel uncomfortable upvoting controversial content.

While it would be ill advised to train low rank troops on these issues of questioning orders, it's clear that the officer corp should integrate this into their curriculum for future conflicts. Not only on moral, ethical grounds but on grounds of sound military strategy and force loss reduction (a vital thing for an all volunteer force). Enough autonomy must be allowed to factor in the safety of deployed forces.

US intervention in Somalia, the Mogadishu incident is one example where military leaders conceded with a lack of forces and lack of information. Am sorry but its terrible when politics run military operations, any military strategist would have told you back then that Somalia is a country filled with militias that have been fighting a civil war for decades. Not factoring that vital piece of information cost 18 lives. Always know the lay of the land. Vietnam should have taught the administration and military that, but they came off too proud from successes of an air war in the Gulf War.

I say this because I frankly don't understand why the US army has to at times undertake duties not within their mission objectives on the ground, why previous plans for re-construction of Iraq are thrown out with nary of a protest (see Bob Woodward), disbanding the Iraq army created an unemployed army for hire. Or worse when they come under equipped into a combat zone they have been drilling for (See Red Flag & OPFOR engagements). War is seriously horrible business and should be taken as such. If you are going to do it. Do it properly, do it with minimal civilian losses (civilians are the eyes and ears in a guerrilla war), do it with minimal force loss, do it when it has the backing of the people. Because morale is affected by how a conflict is seen. This is why by the way there is no longer the raw Vietnam era style of reporting of conflict but embedded reporters.

[Understand that my comment applies to unilateral military engagements in a no-other option scenario]

Unfortunately no matter how much we may learn from the milgrim experiment, the fact is that in cases where it does matter, the utmost is done to attain people who are subservient to authority in the first place.

US Army training is like that, you have the psychological attunement to following orders, and for all the noise created by the Abu Grahib scandal, what response did you get from the administration? That it was a few bad apples. That is clearly a lie, the video shows that in order for people to do inhumane acts, the permission must be given from a higher authority. There is ample evidence showing that private military contractors were hired for information gathering, the soldiers from Abu Ghrabi always mentioned a plain clothed officials who would direct them, this is how Vietnam era torture techniques suddenly show up in Iraq because the soldiers there on the field where never trained for information gathering duties.

Is that guy at 1:48 the US Army spokesperson from Control Room?

Those are non-standarized combat weaponry. The imperial army.. ehh.. I mean the US army should confiscate those....

In the first Gulf war the ratio of military troops to on private military contractors was 100 to 1, in the current Iraqi conflict that number is 10 to 1 and getting smaller as the government subsides sizable chunks of the military machine to PMCs. PMCs are also hired for a variety of other tasks, such as escort of VIPs, escort of supply trucks, and additional force components in large scale engagements. For the administration this is a win win situation, some of these companies have direct links to people in power (Haliburton with Kellog Brown and Root), and replacing US army people with paid individuals is great, since this is a force reduction and thus the same high recruitment numbers don't need to be met. However PMC contractors get paid more then the military soldiers, so there is a large problem about soldiers who do far more dangerous tasks for less and thus leave service to go to a PMC. Some of you might remember the events a while back regarding the American PMCs who were killed and hung up on a bridge, evidence shows that it could have been prevented had the requisite rear gunner been present, however there was no one available that day so the convoy left without a rear gunner.

However there is an inherent problem with this, the PMCs do no fall under the military's arch of judicial power or information exchange for that matter. Following the military's ROE is at best optional. Coordinating tasks on the ground becomes an issue, especially with a dynamic battlescape such as Iraq. Further more abuses by PMC troops are not handled, the individual is usually simply shipped out of the country, and can return for another assignment or contract within 6 months. PMCs are notorious in their tactics, close approaching vehicles are indiscriminately shot at (as shown in the video, proper enforcement of warn, shoot 10m off, shoot vehicle, shoot target are not adhered to).

Hearts and minds and this, is clearly a serious clash of strategic objectives. There is more here.

I like the video, it's striking when something entertains and horrifies at the same time.

When I was in the US Army, I was given an opportunity to try out for Sniper School... Dumbass me turned it down because I wanted to stay with a mechanized unit. Oh well... :-)

http://littlecalamity.tripod.com/Text/Riptide.html

RIPTIDE
(1984-1986)

The RIPTIDE is a white boat with orange trim, formerly the "Mary Aberdeen." She was cursed; six people and one poodle died on her. Nick Ryder bought her from Tiny Tommy's in 1981. She is docked at Slip 7, Pier 56, in King Harbor, next to Mama Joe's tourist ship CONTESSA. (Mama Joe, played by Anne Francis, has an entirely female crew, all young, all in bikinis; the boys ogle them but Mama Joe does her best to keep the girls away from them.) Living on the RIPTIDE are three private investigators: Nick Ryder, Cody Allen, and Dr. Murray Bozinsky. For the traditional $200/day plus expenses, they will solve your case/protect you. They provide security for the pier in exchange for their docking there. They drive a red convertible with orange flames painted on sides, license plate IEAZ219, and the jimmy. The EBBTIDE is a small powerboat, owned by Cody.

Riptide (1984-86) - TV action series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Frank Lupo, this is about two Vietnam buddies who become private investigators. The show co-starred Joe Penny as Nick, the pilot of "Screaming Mimi," and old Sikorsky S-58T helicopter. Painted pink with a garish mouth on front, it was shabby, unreliable US Army surplus.

This is a modified Fan Based Remix/Opening Sequence which being an original AIRWOLF fan, I really enjoyed. For those who wonder what ever did happen to the beautiful Helicopter... It was stripped of its weapons and gadgets and sold to a German leasing company. They leased it as an Air Ambulance that saved lives up until 1991 where during a thunderstorm, she met her fate and was destroyed in a helicopter crash.

Rumor has it that rabid fans have bits and pieces of the original and are rebuilding an exact model to have on display in a museum.

For those wondering, It's a Bell Triple 2B (222) designed by Nasa & the US Army back in the early 1980's.

i would suspect that it costs alot and its far cheaper to have people die. us gov spents way way way to mutch on military alredy why waste mony when u got cheep people. i dont think people ore soduers reolise that thay are just tools ie exactly the same as a gun ore a bomb for use in destroying targits. things might change if the us army looks after its damaged solduers and ex military people better then it will be come realy exspensive for them to have people die and thus cheaper to use this system.

Well actually it can't be hacked or destroyed easily. I mean in terms of advanced electronics, most battle tanks and APC's have tons of it and they are still reliable. Plus the radar system is of a panel design along the lines of a Aegis 360 radar system.

Ultimately my main point from this video is to quote wiki - "MSNBC has reported that there is resistance against incorporating TROPHY in the US Army. The US has contracted Raytheon to develop an equivalent system, which will not be ready before 2011 at the earliest, whereas TROPHY could be deployed much sooner. According to MSNBC's sources, the reason for not adopting TROPHY for now, and saving US lives in Iraq and other places, is that it would remove the need for the Raytheon program, causing it to be canceled."

So basically the current system which works, and can be depolyed right now, is shunned in favour of a Raytheon program that would only be ready in 2011! That's just complete and utter neglience and pork barrel polictics.

I hate to play devil's advocate (lie - I love it), but in this case you can make a valid argument that this thread hasn't been Godwinized:
(from Wikipedia):
"Godwin's Law does not dispute whether, in a particular instance, a reference or comparison to Hitler or the Nazis might be apt. It is precisely because such a reference or comparison may sometimes be appropriate, Godwin argues in his book, Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age, that hyperbolic overuse of the Hitler/Nazi comparison should be avoided, as it robs the valid comparisons of their impact."

Depending on your interpretation of the Law (esp. the first sentence), either you can never use it, or there's an exception for when it's valid. I'd argue the latter, and say that it applies in this case.

Whether or not equating Radical Islamists with Nazis is open to debate, but I understood that q-shroom's point was that those who insist on fighting them are Cassandra-like Churchills.

This was a case where the comparison is apt - for purposes of legitimate debate - and isn't necessarily being used to hysterically attack one side or the other (again, my interpretation is open to debate, but that's how I read q-shroom's comment).

So technically the substance of the debate is not concluded.

You do make a valid point about the cycle of violence, which really isn't much of a mystery. At the same time, there are some people who are out to hurt us. Has the threat been overplayed? I'd say yes - it's not like they have brigades of tanks ready to use to roll through Poland or France, although they do have some people ready to abandon civility and blow themselves and others up.

Not a simple issue by any stretch of the imagination, of course.

And of course, the poor guy who lost his taxi got screwed. Hopefully he'll be able to appeal his case to US Army brass and he gets compensation... if you're an American citizen and truly concerned, I recommend writing to the Pentagon to find out. Old-fashioned letters can have as much power as infantry brigade...

I remember this; stole it from a US army depot (if memory serves correctly he had at some point served in the Army, so he knew how to drive it), they stopped him when he got stuck on some embankment/railing time thing. Oh yeah, there it is. Cops climbed on top and shot him to death. (Video doesn't show that last bit, so it's still kosher for VS)

Happened about 11 or 12 years ago.

Ran over a bunch of cars in the process - oh wait, there's the photage.

[this is what happens when you write your comment while watching]
Actually, it was 11 years ago in May - there's a time stamp on the vid from the chopper.

It was the first thing I thought of when I saw this vid (the bulldozer):
http://www.videosift.com/story.php?id=6527