This is something I do not seem to understand. Why is the kid running like that for a bottle of water? I know some of you have advanced your opinions, but still, it seems hard to believe that someone would run like that for water. The kid was obviously not thirsty because if that was true he wouldn’t have the amount of energy to spend running the way he did.
Is it for the bottle? Kind of hard to believe that either. Iraq was not a poor country and the people there were well off until the US fucked things up for them. A plastic water bottle is therefore not likely to be a novelty.
Maybe the assholes thought that the kid was running for water whereas he was actually running to get a ride or something like that. The idiots dropped the bottle. Those older kids who came in from the side caused the running kid to slow down and he was forced to abandon whatever he was chasing.
Nothing however makes these idiots any less reprehensible. Motherfuckers!!
Sort of looks like they where in the back of a supply truck. Seems too high for a HUMMV. Perhaps a duce and a half? Looks like there is some type of a quick mount for a gun in the back of the vehicle. Anyone know what that is?
I didn’t really find it that disturbing. YM(clearly)V. As far as I know, water is no longer in short supply in urban areas of Iraq, and I got the impression that the kids were running as much for the sake of running as anything else.
I was reminded of nothing so much as the cliched image of an ice-cream-van guy gunning the engine to see how fast he can make the kids following him run.
Granted, this article is a little old. But seeing as how things have deteriorated over the year, I wouldn’t be surprised if nothing has changed.
Obviously? Obviously you underestimate thirst pangs. If I were thirsty and someone waved a bottle of water in my face, I most certainly would go chasing after it. Even if I couldn’t afford to expend all that energy. Desperation tends to do that to you.
Now, none of us know what that youngster was feeling. Maybe he was bored and in the mood to entertain. Maybe he was dying of thirst. We don’t know enough to say. The only thing obvious in that clip is that those soldiers were dicking around and being unnecessarily mean.
Maybe you have never been to Mardi Gras, or never been to a parade. In some very modern western countries, people go absolutely ape-shit over .01 cent plastic beads! They even FIGHT over them. If it blinks or something novel, then they go really nuts and scream and will even chase the float if the guy is showing that he might throw it to them.
Same thing. And when I mentioned ballpoint pens, I wasn’t making that up. They will ask for those specifically.
Twenty years ago I saw sailors toss handfulls of cheap Philippine coins out into the heavy traffic on Macsaysay Boulevard in Olongopo, to watch the street kids dart in between the jitneys to fight over.
I wish I could enjoy seeing the human race improving just a little during my lifetime, but that’s hope long cold.
I was appalled at the first video as well. I’m still disturbed by it, but I’ve given it a bit of a second thought. It occurs to me that military training and culture may lead people not to see this kind of treatment as particularly mean or even disrespectful. I’d bet many military types tease each other in ways similar to this, and perhaps even recieve occasional comprable treatment from superiors during training, that they come to think of it as innocent razzing, maybe even character building in some twisted sense. I’m not saying any of this was explicitly on the guys’ mind, but things like this may contribute to situations in which people could judge this activity appropriate and normal and worth showing to others on youtube.
I’ve seen behavior like that in the video here and I’ve seen soldiers trying to be respectful and thoughtful. The disrespectful behavior sticks a lot more than the respectful behavior.
The kid running for the water might not have known it was just water. I’ve seen humvees and other US military vehicles drive around throwing candy out to kids as part of the hearts and minds campaign. The kid might just assume that whatever they were going to throw was valuable. Maybe they did know it was water and just wanted it.
The test I like to give people when I’m home on leave is to imagine that there are Chinese soldiers everywhere in your hometown. Imagine they yelled at you in Chinese and clearly got angry when you don’t understand. Imagine that truck scene playing out with an Opie Taylor looking kid chasing after a Chinese truck for a bottle of water.
Yes, but then when you are desperate, you do not give up the water without a fight either, which does not appear to happen in the clip.
In the video, although the soldiers seem to enjoy tormenting the kid, or so they think, I don’t believe the kid actually felt tormented.
Kids in poorer countries just enjoy running after big vehicles especially those they are not familiar with. They just run making a lot of noise and have a lot of fun doing it. Very soon it becomes a sort of race amongst them with eventually one winner. In this case there was the additional possibility of a trophy too that would make the winner look even better. The trophy could be anything, a candy or a bottle of water, as long as it is something that the other kids did not get.
I do not feel bad for the kid since I don’t imagine he felt tormented. However, the fact that soldiers apparently believe that they were tormenting the kid and also appear to enjoy doing it, is what makes them dickheads.
The bolded part is why I have the teeniest problem with your post. It’s one thing to say, “Well, the kid doesn’t HAVE to be tormented.” It’s quite another to say, “It’s obvious he ISN’T tormented.” The first is very true. The second is borderline arrogant.
There isn’t enough information in the clip to say he’s tormented or not. I can imagine that the boy is training for the Olympics and just happened to be running when the truck showed up–just to assuage my own feelings of guilt and discomfort–but that doesn’t mean my imagination is particularly reasonable given the facts of life in war-torn Iraq right now.
I’d be just as pissed off if it happened in my neighborhood, or (more likely) it was one of my trashy cousins doing it. Not because the kid was harmed, but because they were acting like assholes and laughing at him.
And, if it were my cousins doing it, they’d laugh at me and tell me I was too uptight and they were just having fun. Didn’t stop me hating them when they teased me as a kid.
The fact that we’re over there trying to “win hearts and minds” is just icing on the cake. You don’t win hearts and minds as a fucking bully.
Soldier here and my vote is a great big “Meh”. I agree it’s kind of jerkish and I’d prefer it not happen, but it does. Kids chase trucks. Just about every convoy has kids messing around chasing it at some point or other. Soldiers get bored and mess with the kids.
Personally, I like to be the candyman and give stuff to the kids. I don’t care for teasing the locals like that and I don’t let my Soldiers do it, but I don’t see it as a criminal act like some of our SDMB brethren.
If I’d been in the truck, I’d have told them to cut the crap and either give up the bottle or pull it back into the truck and quick teasing the kids. I doubt I’d have even thought about it afterwards.
No counseling, no court-martial, just a “cut that shit out”.
YMMV.
My grandfather was a ships engineer in the thirties. When they sailed into Calcutta harbour, people would often throw small coins and bits of junk over the side to get the urchins to dive into the harbour - which was full of raw sewage. :rolleyes:
The human race has always had a largish proportion of total assholes - unfortunately they always seem to be most visible whenever the situation would benefit most from their absence.
I agree with drillrod. Kids love to chase after military vehicles. It’s not that they’re starving or thirsty or even poor. They just really want whatever a soldier might toss them.
It was a bit dickish and I’d have told them to knock it off, but my older brother tormented me in far worse ways when I was the apparent age of that kid.
Sucks the other kids got the bottle though. I’d have timed my throw better.