Imperialist France is at it again, killing innocent civilians and epitomizing hypocrisy. These videos take a while to download and some parts of the 2nd video are quite graphic.
They show what seems like a peaceful protest wherein French forces, from about 20 yards away, fire on unarmed innocent civilians from behind hedges and barbed wire.
A few guys hang out on a tank while one just casually fires into the crowd. These people were smiling and dancing. The second video shows the results. It seems like a disproportionate amount of those injured/killed were women (at least and relative to typical warfare)and there were many instances of people being shot in the back. Warning: there is a shot of a man with his head completely blown off. I can’t believe that this has gotten so little press. Funny how France suddenly sees it fit to forgive Iraqi debt. Pricks.
Well, Reeder while the OP himself brought up US atrocity comparison there is no reason to take the edge off a proper pitting of a horrible act- even if the US did something horrible too.
Don’t know if it’s me or them but I’m having slow going with the video(links work for me) so hopefully I can comment specifically soon. I will question the “hypocrisy” slant of the OP, I don’t remember an official French claim to pacificism.
If you believe it’s so evil, why belittle it by pointing out that it doesn’t give me license to exculpate the soldiers in Fallujah? You know very well that I was using hyperbole
to highlight the hypocrisy and if you didn’t, then I can’t help you.
And the Atlantic Ocean is a bit moist. The files are about 100MB each, and when I tried to download them (with broadband), it was quoting estimated times of about 2 hours. I not waiting two hours to download them until you give us some more information, like a cite of some sort, something to indicate it’s not just camera trickery, or a massive whoosh, and to put it in context so we know what we are getting.
Apparently someone over has compressed it but I haven’t been able to connect to that site. Instapundit says you can find that copy here (but I haven’t been able to get through:
Like CLedet said, it’s hard to put into context. What you see see is a “Hey, I hear they’re having a protest let’s go and check it out” kind of crowd rather than an angry mob. You also see a French soldier who is behind hedges and barbed wire, next to a tank who is shooting at people who, judging by the fact that people aren’t close, must be reasonably far away. That crowd may have warranted riot gear at worst but not high-powered rounds. You can’t tell if there is a link between the 1st and 2nd video, but the crowd was amazingly calm given the slaughter around them.
Yeah, it took me about an hour to download one video, and I’m on broadband.
But it does seem sort of odd… something doesn’t quite click and I wonder if it isn’t the editing. Still, it looks as if French troops opened fire with live ammo on a peaceful-if-angry crowd.
Stern condemnation and possible criminal investigations are most likely in order.
However, something that struck me while I was watching the first video. The scene where they’re getting on the truck, I could swear I’ve seen it before. I’m not sure where or when, but it does raise questions in my mind.
Look, I realize that most of the people here are not journalists, but fer cryin’ out loud, what is the context of these videos? A little “who, what, where, when and why” would not go amiss. Could we some idea where and when this material was supposedly shot? I’m presuming it’s the Cote d’Ivoire, but I can’t sit around for the hour or so it would take to download this.
On a side note, how we are supposed to arrive at the conclusion that a French military attack against protesters in the Cote d’Ivoire sometime in the past month or so means the US will be at war with Franch 50 years from now, I have no frickin’ clue.
I watched the first video, and am downloading the second, but in order to determine what happened, statistics will be necessary.
This seems like too blatant a thing to do without the entire world taking notice, so also, i’d like to know WHEN this took place.
A possible ‘justification’ for this is, that the soldiers are actually firing less lethal ammunition (keep in mind, less is the operative word here).
Still, I can’t think of a single reason to fire less lethal rounds at people who are singing and dancing…
…unless it’s the macarena.
OK, I’ve seen the second video (damn those are huge files) and I have some questions.
Why soldiers? Are there no civil police where ever this took place?
Tanks! There were TANKS! What happened that brought TANKS to the party?
I understand peaceful protest, but once the shooting starts, the party (at least for me) is over. Why did so many stick around, or were they hemmed in?
There were many people lying on the ground, that did that “open-one-eye-to-see-if-the-camera-is-looking” bit. What do we suppose THAT was all about?
I saw the unfortunate individual with his/her head removed, and I’ve got to wonder how that happened. Something like that, even with a .223 or 7.62 round (M-16 or AK) is kind of unusual. I’m wondering if that wasn’t an execution by shotgun (even, perhaps with less lethal ammo).
