An organization called WikiLeaks recently posted a classified video to YouTube showing a U.S. Apache Helicopter opening fire on people in Iraq in 2007 (www.collateralmurder.com). Among those killed were two Reuters journalists and among the injured were two children. I found the video to be quite heavy. There has been a great amount of discussion as to the justification for the U.S. pilot opening fire. Some believe he was perfectly justified and the casualties are just a fact of war while others believe there wasn’t justification and the video is an example of U.S. aggression. WikiLeaks has released the classified Rules of Engagement for 2006, 2007 and 2008 and the military says the soldiers involved were in accordance with the rules of engagement.
While the discussion of the video has mostly centered around this topic, I wish to take a step back. Regardless of the justification (or lack thereof) of the event, it is merely a single incident in what has become a lengthy and costly war, in terms of money and lives. My hope would be that people would consider the context of the video. Regardless of whether or not the pilot was justified in opening fire, I think the question of whether or not the U.S. should be in Iraq in the first place is the bigger question.
I believe this video is the most up close and personal video I’ve seen from the Iraq war. Every now and then you see a car bomb go off on the news with a huge explosion and perhaps some following coordinated explosions, but for me they tend to look more like special effects than people actually dying. Sure we’ve heard the body counts, but I don’t think numbers ever do justice in representing lives. Hearing about the number of deaths is so impersonal and detached from the gravity of people being killed. It seems as the war goes on longer and longer, the less and less we hear about it. Perhaps that’s a good thing because it means less troops are dying, but even if nobody is dying, we still need to be constantly reevaluating what our mission is and if our presence is necessary.
The video also opens up some other topics of discussion, like why the video was classified in the first place and had to be leaked, rather than approving the Freedom of Information Act request that Reuters submitted. I think that’s a really good question. It does surprise me that the video is classified. I don’t think any of the technology used in the video is secretive. If the enemy just typed “U.S. Apache Helicopter” into a search engine I’m pretty sure they’d be able to read about all the technology used in the video.
The only reason for this video being classified that I can see (and I could be wrong on this, so please let me know if you have any other ideas) is that it would be a bad public relations move to release the video. It reminds me of the big issue that was made out of taking pictures of returning soldiers coffins. I think of all the things our tax money goes to and what we should be educated about is money that goes towards fighting wars and ultimately ending many, many lives. Topics of war should not be taken lightly and part of that is being informed. The government is clearly in the position of trying to positively spin wars. So much for “mission accomplished.”
WikiLeaks, the organization that released the video, is a very interesting organization. It has leaked more than a million documents relating to “political, diplomatic, historical or ethical interest.” In March 2010 it released a secret U.S. Department of Defense report on WikiLeaks that discusses how to marginalize it. I can definitely see why our government (as well as many others) would like to see an end to WikiLeaks but at the same time I try to be an informed citizen, and in that respect I see WikiLeaks as invaluable. Freedom of the press is paramount for a free society, and while I recognize certain government documents should remain sealed, overall I see WikiLeaks’ actions as being beneficial in keeping us informed on very important topics.
I too watched this video and found it hard to stay for the whole thing. My initial reaction, like most people I assume, was anger and disgust. However, after thinking about it for a while I relized that this was one act of many like it and as bad as it seems this is war. Think back to the history we know of WW2. There was basically no media coming from the war directly into the publics eyes. Yet, we see these things right up front now. Nothing has changed except our awareness as a population of death in war. I do agree that the big issue is our mission goal and that should be evaluated constantly. If it is necessary to be where we are then these images and movies were now seeing should be watched with warfare rules in mind. If we shouldn’t be where we are then these images and videos should be looked at as murder.
We don’t have to deploy troops to iraq/afghanistan/pakistan to find and hold accountable those who were responsible for 9/11 — i.e. the terrorists. Our government carried out the attacks. As troubling as our current situation seems, it is no different than that endured by the dozen or so previous great civilizations that rose and fell before ours. Hopefully our species is able to take away a lesson this time.
Whether or not you agree with this war (or any for that matter), the leaking of classified information is wrong and serves only to endanger the brave men and women who didn’t choose this war, but none the less are willing to sacrafice themselves in defense of this nation. There exists this little peice of legislation that your “elected” officials dreamed up called the Freedom of Information Act which is a legitimate and legal avenue for the disclosure of classified materials. As a person who has been involved with classified documents in the past, I can say that the reason to classify information rarely has anything to do with technology that may or may not be visible and more to do with what operational sensitivity could potentially be comprimised (such as the operating locations, strengths, and proceedures of US forces which is something we don’t like to share with our enemies). The conspiracy nuts out there are no doubt shouting “cover-up!”, and I’ll conceed that could sometimes be a possibility, but the bulk of your men and women in uniform are honorable people being asked to do extraodinary things–cut them some slack. If you have a beef with US presence in the Middle East, begin your next letter writting campaing with “Dear Mr. President.”