Can't sleep after watching Cooper Anderson video of US bombing

[xray s]

Cooper Anderson played a video taken from a US warplane cockpit tonight that showed a 500lb bomb being dropped on a few dozen Iraqis walking on the street in Falluja during the fighting last April. The pilot was given orders to drop the bomb by his flight controller. It was implied that the people in the street were leaving a rebel location, but there was no way you could tell from the video who they were. If there were women and children in the area. Just ants on a screen, and then, BOOM, they are all gone.

And the voice on the radio kind of chuckles and says "Ohh Dude!" after it happens. Like its a video game.

God I hate what Bush has turned this country into.

[SoCalDem]

1. We TRAIN our young soldiers with video games...

and what young guy under 35, didn't GROW UP with video games..

It's not "real" to them.. They don't hear the cries, see the blood..

It was the same for the B-52 pilots during Viet Nam.. They carpet bombed the place, and never saw the casualties:(

[Ilsa]

10. TV show MASH did an remarkable show on this

concept a couple of years before they shut down. The pilot was at the unit and saw children being brought in that he had just bombed. He was beside himself with guilt.

[SoCalDem]

11. It's human nature... When you are directly confronted with something

bad, the empathy can kick in..

The distancing oneself from the "ugly" , allows it to continue..

AbuGrhaib is a prime example.. It was going on for a long time, but as long as we did not SEE the photos, we could all just pretend it never happened..

We did the same with the Holocaust.. People in HIGH PLACES ignored it, even though they had knowledge of it.. When the camps were liberated, there was NO WAY they could ignore it any longer.

[Zhade]

2. Sadly, this country bombed innocents decades before b*sh.

This is, unfortunately, nothing new. The outrages never stop.

This administration has only accelerated the corrupt devolution of the United States, not triggered it. We have much work ahead of us even if Kerry wins.

I hope Americans do not go back to sleep, should he get into office.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Are we getting to the real reasons why they hate us yet?? n/t

[BootinUp]

3. For some historical perspective

check out the movie "The Fog of War" at your video rental. When it comes to justifying bombing of civilian targets we are second to none.

[izzie]

5. I saw this last week and sent it all over,

I was sort of shocked to see it on TV.

[vetwife]

6. Did you hear the guy say "Dude" afterwards..Sick !

[TahitiNut]

7. If a platoon troops on the ground opened up and shot them all ...

... it'd be called an atrocity. This is part of the insanity of war. When a pilot, whose life is not in danger, drops a bomb that kills indiscriminately, it's called a "strike." When Lt. Calley goes into My Lai and kills indiscriminately, it's called a war crime.

And we don't even see the people in nearby homes and buildings that're mutilated. :puke:

[Ezlivin]

8. Everytime someone mentions the 3,000 lives lost at the WTC and Pentagon...

...I want to ask if they think we've "evened the score" by our killing of 10K - 15K Iraqi and Afghan civilians.

If that many civilians had died here, we would have gone nuclear on someone. We have no tolerance for OUR civilians being killed.

[indepat]

9. And God how I despise each and every person/entity who have enabled

him.