Yeah. We does that shit to kids and fuck up their lives in their country. This ain’t Apocalypse Now, giblets-for-brains. Apparently there’s a surreal twilight zone thing over in New Mexico too. But that was no excuse for whoever ruined your mind to get away with it even though you’re too screwed to know that doing that is a big deal.
That is all kinds of fucked up, and your friend is an asshole. I’d find myself wanting to punch him in the nose if he was my friend. At any rate, he’d by my ex friend at that point.
You might have trouble with that if you were an Iraqi living in Iraq, since every household in the country has an automatic weapon. They have a tradition of shooting them into the air to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, sports wins, etc. And they keep them for home defense, of course.
A cite for my last statement.
I’m having problems matching this:
With this, three minutes previously:
Makes me think that you’re a backpedaling liar.
For those of us who grew up with images of Northern Ireland, the football (soccer) film isn’t that bizarre. Glad you found that, Bear_Nenno, it gives me hope, however tiny.
This is sad and true. Unfortunately every act of callous behavior makes the entire situation slightly worse, hardens the resistance, and makes it that more likely Iraq will be an aborted state.
I agree that you shouldn’t blame the troops for this one incident, although you can agree that these particular guys are jack offs (they seem pretty cool and collected to me, YMMV).
Our troops were given a job they weren’t trained or equipped to do, with no overall strategy. In this regard you could place your outrage elsewhere in the government. However, it doesn’t change what we’ve done. The tortured, the raped, the millions of displaced people don’t really care why their lives have been changed forever, they just know what is.
Beatings and other counterproductive acts were pretty common in 2003-04; they’ve tried to put a lid on it lately (not in terms of covering it up, but making sure it doesn’t happen because it’s so stupid strategically), but it’s too late because we already lost the propaganda war. Heck, it wasn’t even really a war, since we slit our own throats as soon as it started.
I was pretty happy when Bush was talking about hearts and minds at the start of this since I thought he might know what the hell he’s doing. So much for that…
I can’t watch the video. Is it clear from what we see that these are US military soldiers, as opposed to private “security contractors”?
Sailboat
Even if they were ‘contractors’ or somesuch, the reality is that every foreigner carrying wepaons that has any kind of association with the US miitary, or just the US in any way will simply be seen as part of the US army and part of the occupation forces.
100% Sure from the video. They are most definitely military, and most definitely American.
And for those trying to excuse the actions of those soldiers:
Here’s the thing. I can’t say that if I was over there, I wouldn’t at some point in 12-14 months of driving around the town have kids constantly throwing rocks at me and bugging the shit out of me for pens and chocolate and whatever else. Everyone I know has stories about the little kids there. Most people I know share the same opinion, “God I can’t stand those little bastards!”
But I think most of those people still understand that they’re just KIDS. They’re doing what kids do! If I was a little kid over there, I’d probably throw rocks at the soldiers too. Sounds like fun.
Anyway, my point is this:
IF I did something like this. Just fucking with a couple of kids to get my jollies, I wouldn’t be fucking proud of myself for it. And I absolutely would NOT FUCKING POST THE VIDEO ON YOUTUBE!!
I dont blame them so much for the act itself, but posting that video and being so smug and so fucking proud of themselves for acting like total immature fuckwads and posting that shit on Youtube for the entire world to see what a bunch of snot-nosed little bitches the American Military is. That is not only fucked-up, it’s irresponsible and unbecoming of an American Soldier. It’s also inexcusable and indefensable.
Here is a story that will warm cockles.
Indeed.
Although I can’t help wondering what the rest of that child’s life will be like.
If we’re successful, it will be in a free democratic nation that sets a standard of peace and compromise for the rest of the world.
… here’s hoping.
I also liked the video of the soldier playing a bit of soccer. He’s actually quite good.
It’s quite clear that the ‘soldiers’ taunting the kids with water are nothing more than children themselves. They are certainly not men. I don’t care if they may be 20, 30 or 40 years old. They are not men.
Given that the comment by the person who posted it on YouTube is…
I kind of think that this wasn’t the person who shot the video. Of course that makes me wonder where the poster GOT the video in the first place, unless it’s one of those “passed around the web from e-mail to e-mail” things.
I’m also very curious over the context. I seems to me that a bottle of water would only be a particularly precious prize if the kids in that town didn’t have any other source of drinking water. Is water overly scarce in some Iraqi towns? To the point where our military is having to provide it? (I honestly don’t know – if that’s the case, I haven’t heard about it).
If the kid’s going to go thirsty (like for the rest of the day) with no other source of water because he didn’t get the bottle, then yeah, it’s cruel. But then it would be cruel to only offer only one bottle in the midst of an extremely thirsty town. I somehow doubt that’s the case – other people in the vicinity seemed too calm for that.
I don’t think I know enough about the context of the situation to personally render judgement on it.
Yeah – he was good. That was a cool video – nice to see some examples of that sort of interaction.
The bottle of water would be precious not necessarily for its contents, but for its resale value. Plus it looks like “Vittel” brand, which is a western brand and therefore has even more cache. Also the bottle without the water is valuable for people to refill it with bad water, and resell it. I’ve seen kids fighting over empty water bottles in Nepal.
Interesting – didn’t know that, but it makes sense, I guess. Although if that’s the case, it would seem that the bottle could be a valuable prize to some kid, but not really a “need” (assuming he has some other source of good drinking water).
I did a few google searches and found some articles about trying to get running water back up in Iraqi towns, and about poor quality of water (impure or even tainted) in some places. Although most of those links were a couple years old. So now it makes me wonder what’s the current situation with water over there.
Yea, I didn’t notice that. Still, it got out into the internet somehow.
It could have been anything. Its not that the kids were particularly thirsty. It could have been a squirtgun, a ballpoint pen, a tshirt, a piece of gum… anything. Water bottles are pretty cool because they’re colorful, the water is good, and as was mentioned, you can refill it.
I dont know exactly why they want it so much, but it definitely isn’t because of thirst.
I’ve seen and heard of all kinds of stuff like this. And this one is pretty mild. It’s part of an ongoing thing between soldiers and the kids over there. I know of guys who collect rocks so he can throw them back at the kids. Kinda playful, but looks bad on camera.
But like anything, if you’re not in the mood to play, it gets really old, really fast. Everywhere you go, the kids are either throwing shit at you or begging you for gifts. If you got shit strapped down to the sides of your vehicle, they will run up and try to take the shit when you stop. Think Bradley, not HMMWV. You can’t just jump out and stop them.
The whole video is kinda meh, whatever. Whose never teased a kid before? But I dont like that they are so proud as to send the thing over the internet for all to see. They should have known how it makes them look. Like immature little turds!
Also, FTR, the fact they finally did drop the bottle makes it less apolling. Had he kept it, or drank it in front of him or something, that would have been really bad. He did drop the water for the “winner”. It’s not his fault that the other kids got it.
The more I watch it, the more I think I’m just angry at the sound of that moron laughing and talking to his sergeant. He’s just a little fucking shmuck. That, and how proud they are about the whole thing.
The fact that they didn’t personally put it on Youtube takes some of the sting of the video away, though.
For some reason, the water-teasing made me laugh, though I was laughing at how much of a total prick the soldier was being. It didn’t make me angry.