Fedquip, go copulate with yourself-

Seriously choggie, what is your problem?

Why post this clip really?

I would be the last person telling combat personnel how they should be dealing with the situations they find themselves in.

I would much rather attack the higher echelon of lunatics who thought up the war in the first place.

These guys, they are just trying to make it right now. Under combat fatigue and stress, when you'd say pretty much anything about anyone because of where you are stuck in. This is how combat against non-military units is; stressful, fearful and unknown because you are always meeting resistance in the form of guerrilla tactics.

Videos like this, sure maybe the guy is a jerk whatever, but sometimes people take these videos and think it speaks for the entire US army. Just look at the effect the Rodney King tapes had on respect towards police officers all across North America.

When you throw away what makes you American, are you any better than the guys we are out there fighting? Americans should be fighting for duty, honor, and country. Not to mention freedom, truth, justice, and the American way. That means we own up to our mistakes, and take responsibility for them. Not try to cover them up, even in combat! I served. I know.

Patriotism means standing up, doing the right thing, for the right reasons. Even when it may not be the popular thing to do at the time.

I agree, but war is a subjective experience and expecting a uniform reaction to it is expecting a bit too much.

One can easily recalls the experience from Vietnam, you had people drafted of very creed and color. Some wanted the pink mist of the thrill kill, some went to serve against what they believed was a wrong ideology and the liberation of the South Vietnamese people, many went because they didn't have a choice becuase of life circumstances. You get a kaleidoscope of reactions to the experience that has been well documented in popular culture and non-fiction press. Micheal Herr's Dispatches is a good example, war is hell no matter what cause you fight for.

Farhad- I think the clip goes pretty well with the news release from today. There are hundreds of videos just like this on sites like youtube and liveleak.

I agree that we should be aiming for the top, but I think this video is an example of what happens when lunatics are in charge of armies. These kids have been in war for 5 years now. I honestly doubt I could handle that, I would go nuts.

But I look at the ethics report and can't help but to wonder how this army is being trained. Soldiers like this guy in the video are a result of bad command.. and maybe cell phone cameras.

Either way it's news, and it certainly is a problem. 40% of the army supports torture?

I fully agree with ya Farhad2000. This video shows something else that the poster at Democratic Underground tried to make clear. That the soldiers are fighting a war, they have no idea how to win, they have no armies to fight, they are basically in the cross hairs and they are fed up about it. I don't blame them one bit. If you get the chance check out "The Ground Truth". You can find some copies on the net but the audio is badly out of synch.

If you wanna know more about the cause of some of this read A failure in generalship:

For the second time in a generation, the United States faces the prospect of defeat at the hands of an insurgency. In April 1975, the U.S. fled the Republic of Vietnam, abandoning our allies to their fate at the hands of North Vietnamese communists. In 2007, Iraq’s grave and deteriorating condition offers diminishing hope for an American victory and portends risk of an even wider and more destructive regional war.

These debacles are not attributable to individual failures, but rather to a crisis in an entire institution: America’s general officer corps. America’s generals have failed to prepare our armed forces for war and advise civilian authorities on the application of force to achieve the aims of policy.

*nsfw

This video has been marked NSFW (called by gold star member bizinichi)

We were just talking today about a report that came out about how torture is something that soldiers become accustomed to during their training. If it's something they are familiar with before they even go to war, then it won't seem like such a bad thing to inflict on the enemy. It's timely that I saw this video tonight, thanks fedquip.

40% of the army supports torture?...4 out of 5 dentists surveyed.....to some, torture is sand in their shoes at the beach....War sucks-so point your guns at the culprits....OH You aren't quite sure who "They" are??? Try a mirror for starters, then, after you are through going to work and playing on the computer, perhaps you can make a little time for sacrifice, preparing for a real future, or caring for those around you in immediate need.....
some folks scream about the injustice in the world and buy shit tickets for the World Wildlife Fund,

others pretend they are doing some grand service to the masses by flexing 2 parts ego, 4 parts cut & paste editorial masturbation, and 5 part mob rule

still others place some desire to be wanted or feel important over a sincere willingness to do what it would take, to affect changes of substance, of true ethical and moral righteousness, that is universally understood-

some little boys never get over having sand kicked in their faces.......some of those boys are coming back stateside and some aren't while some do not have any sense of what any sort of authentic sacrifice is, nor have they ever seen past the constructs that keep them static and robbed of meaning....

no apologies for the original comment, or regrets.....and have had to eat hatte, words, and shit before, a myriad of ways people perceive things, this makes life a challenge and and interesting aside to this glass darkly....(the apostle Dick)Changed-done so at an admins request....probly' tattled on by a whining brat.....

fedquip... I am in support of the publication of this post and would be pleased to add it to my playlists, however, I feel I must take issue with the title and request that you please change it to better reflect the content of the video. 'Army Ethics' implies a much broader, centralized plan of training, which is also suggested by the article you've linking this post to... and although this vid could be evidence that enhances said article, I do not feel it encompasses the entire theme, as the title would suggest to the viewer... this video clearly reflects no centralized military policy and is the opinions and actions of a few individuals. So, essentially, I agree with Farhad's concerns and would ask that you change the title to accurately reflect the content of the video, rather than using it to push your own agenda. I've already changed the tags, and further request that if you are going to publish videos here, you at least spend the time necessary to tag them for efficient filing.

Thank you,
Raven- anal-retentive sift librarian

Tags changed from "war" to "war, iraq, soldiers, kids, hearts, minds" by gold star member raven.

"One Soldier's Ethics" as a title and I may have upvoted. But with a generalization of the whole Army in the title I feel that it misrepresents a lot of good men and women to be categorized as the same as this "humanitarian."

I'll take your suggestion Wildman, thanks

uhhhhhhh, that was raven's suggestion......

There isn't an excuse for calling kids you are supposed to be protecting "fuckers". Is there?

They want a pen so they can DRAW STUFF and LEARN THINGS, you know, like they were supposed to be doing 15 minutes after the invasion when the liberators got the power and water working again. Remember?

Sitting around and getting shot at is not easy, but you don't have a choice about being a target, you signed up for the army ffs. Where you DO have a choice is whether or not to film yourself being disrespectful and put it on youtube like some kind of trophy.

Wow, like, hey, they can't understand english! So you curse at them! Nice one! That's gotta relieve the stress, huh? That's so funny the way you take advantage like that! Any idea what they are saying in arabic?

Wow, they beg for food and money. That's gotta be HELLA annoying yeah? Damn, I aint joining the army if you have to deal with kids asking for food all the damn time.

Bottom line... sow the seeds of hate and contempt, and reap a nightmare. One of those kids could be fighting against you in a couple of years.

Still haven't seen one of these videos with a british soldier in it btw...

ahhh those fine british lads.
this was depressingly easy to find:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=&v=cLaAUx4r7ow

Here is one with british soliders...
http://throwawayyourtv.videosift.com/video/NSFW-British-Troops-Beating-Young-Iraqis-On-Camera

"lunatics are in charge of armies"....INGSOC-if the youth begin using such meaningful and semantic language, what is to become of the future???

"Incite-ful!"

"True to his point!"

"Seditious!"
with what will re replace such hatred and turmoil.....give peas a chance....

look! here's an example of another tool of the species....how could anyone, ever let themselves become so cruel......?
Look boss, de plane! de plane!!

" There isn't an excuse for calling kids you are supposed to be protecting "fuckers". Is there?"
hey MINK-ever been shot at???Good! There's a good chance you won't have to judge these chaps in the afterlife....and a good reason why your holey argument sounds like a childish, tirade...sadly sincere, as it appears.....

"Fedquip, go copulate with yourself-"

Talk about childish tirade...


Downvote for original poster caving to "agenda" of others. However, from what I've seen from all the vids on LiveLeak, most submitted by military personnel, the attitude/behavior of this soldier is not unusual. Not by a long shot.

No fletch, it is not unusual, and I'm sorry you felt it necessary to downvote, I want this vid to get published precisely so people can see how things are going down over there. If I have an agenda regarding the changing of this title it is only because I would like to see the sift better organized and at least searchable (hence my addition of tags)... and yeah, I was a little miffed by the gross generalization of the army that the first title conveyed... I share fedquip's anti-iraq war stance, but I don't believe posting videos with misleading titles is the way to go about documenting the gross stupidity and inhumane nature of some of the personnel involved in the conflict.

choggie, that's such a lame argument "have you ever been shot at?"
if only veterans are allowed to have an opinion about the ethics of calling kids "fuckers" then you're talking about a military dictatorship not a democracy.

i served in the cadets for four years and met a lot of people who have been shot at, this was during the genocide in Serbia and all the servicemen I met were very very proud of their humanitarian service. They didn't seem to be uneducated hicks struggling to deal with the enormity of the situation they signed up to. Army recruitment adverts in the UK at that time were focussing on dealing with civilians, helping them rebuild, calming situations down with face to face negotiations.

So I have a choice, I can insult the soldier by blaming him for cracking under pressure in a job he swore to do properly, or I can insult his army for caring more about troop numbers than troop quality, or I can insult their political commanders for being ignorant idealists without a plan. Or I can blame all three. You don't have to have been in a trench to know this whole thing is bullshit, every last bit of it.

Poor soldiers getting shot at and going mental? Well that's exactly why I protested against sending them there in the first place.

Bosnia. Another tragic, baited, and carefully orchestrated route acquisition.

*waronterror

Adding video to channels (Waronterror) - requested by raven.

*dead

This published video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by twiddles.

Awarding rasch187 with one Power Point for fixing this video's dead embed code.

*dead

This video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by eric3579.