This.

It's a tragedy, for sure. People make mistakes all the time. Note that the video isn't exactly top of the line HD quality. Until the military possesses this kind of quality in their mechanical visuals, there's no way for the troops to know for sure exactly what's going on. They have to act on what they believe to be a threat, before that potential threat endangers too many people.

That said, the military should have owned up to their mistake at once. Sadly, any government (and its affiliations, like the military) makes huge mistakes and hides things from the public on a regular basis. I firmly believe that, in the end, this totally undermines their credibility.

This is seriously disturbing to see & hear. It sent chills down my body when I hear the soldier say "I think they just ran over a body" while laughing as a tank completely ran over a lifeless body. Where the hell did they see any weapons? They are steadily talking about weapons but I see NONE! I see a man carrying a camera. Then at one point they said that shots were fired. And they didn't shot because they had nothing to shot with! Ugh..this makes our military look like shit!

Wow. Anytime I say something like, "I don't support this war" angry people say things like, "THE TROOPS ARE OVER THERE FIGHTING FOR YOUR FREEDOM!" What I just saw in that video was not fighting for my fucking freedom. That was a bunch of trigger happy dickheads trying to find excuses for 'seeing' weapons so they could open fire. After they shot up the crowd one man was crawling to save his life and the only thing that bastard in the helicopter could say was, "all you need to do is pick up a weapon?" Why, so can finish him off? That's lovely. You can talk about following orders all day, but the truth is that this was complete bullshit. I heard one of them say that shots were fired from the ground...BULLSHIT. I didn't see anything that resembled shooting until they decided to kill everyone on the ground below them.

Unfortunately, you really have no proof that they weren't carrying weapons, aside from a little arrow that says "camera". Someone could have edited that video.

i don't really find this shocking. in war, shit like this happens. they may have been excited to shoot at them, but really that's the kind of mentality some people fall into in those situations. humans are assholes. no surprise there. horrible things like this have happened in every single war since the dawn of time. some people get enjoyment out of sick shit. things like this are probably frequently covered up. iraqi's can be sadistic, it should come as no surprise that americans can be too. so can any, of any race.

disturbing, yes. shocking, hardly.

Yeah we got into a discussion like this yesterday in my history class since we're on Hitler and the guy beside me kept asking how someone could be so evil and all these questions that are like... ummm... we're just trying to talk about WWII. XD

Sad thing is that some ppl think that the end justifies the means when it doesn't.

you only have to read about the stanford prison experiment to know humans can be evil. they can get swept away with power and do fucked up shit. it isn't shocking. what's surprising is that people think it's shocking. that's naive if you ask me.

Or the Tuskegee experiment.

Hitler was an idiot who just did horrible things to another race. Stalin, Mao Zedung? Nah, they only killed millions upon millions of their own ppl, it's ok. Kill another race?! Shit that's evil.

Really hard to not be disgusted w/ ppl when I see/learn all these things. >___

I think I agree on a few different points for the most part. Disturbing, yes . . . shocking, not really . . . . but can we really lump anyone into a group. Yes if they were indeed enjoying it then it is disgusting. People don't need to go around killing people and enjoying it for any reason. My husband is military and I understand as close as I can what is going on over there but find no joy in it whether or not they have killed people I know and cared for. But not all of our military people over there are like the men in this video were ( again if they were indeed enjoying it, trying to remain kinda objective ). Whether in war or in daily life there are men and women like this who do and say disgusting and disturbing things but there are good people out there too. I still support our troops whether or not I believe in the war or what they are doing. The problem is the government is trying to hide it and there is no way to just root out the people doing things like this for the enjoyment , and stretching the truth to get permission to kill. It is sickening to think people think like that and would lie just to kill someone but it happens. And if they weren't doing it just for the enjoyment and they did tell them to stop without any acknowledgement then I guess the sad part is they were just following orders. It is sad but you cannot hold that against them. Their thinking and their attitudes about it is what needs to change. It isn't just some game. It is sadly real life and they are taking it for granted whether it is someone elses or their own. ( I couldn't watch the video so kinda and very horribly may I add trying to form some thoughts based on everyone elses comments and what I gathered)

Well they were told to stop so they should have stopped. If you are coming to get someone who has been shot at by a military helicopter and they say stop, you'd stop! To be honest in the military you get one chance, even if they didnt have guns, they didnt do what they were told. Im not saying the way the soldiers acted was right because it wasnt and as for the comment "you shouldnt bring your kids to a fight" they KNEW that this guy had been shot at by a helicopter so WHY you would take your children anywhere near that situation is beyond me, even if they firing had stopped, it is a WAR after all :/

Idk, maybe the children were just w/ them when it happened and they couldn't take them home 1st and then come back. I can see a lot of situations where they would have to have the children w/ them instead of leaving them unprotected @ home.

Where are you and everyone else hearing that they were told to stop? What's the time in the video where they were told to stop?

No one has answered this simple freakin' question. I didn't hear anything that resembled the word "STOP." Anywhere in that video when the van showed up. It didn't happen and if it did, I would also like to know when.

can you point out the time in the video where they were told to stop? i can't see it.