I have read the press accounts of the Wikileak video's with horror. My horrors were worserned once I watched the gruesome video. This event is very disturbing and makes me question so many things about war and the conduct of war. Too many people dead in a unneccessary war and due to poor intelligence on the ground.
From the video, three immediate reactions from me : anger, sorrow and disgust
I was also struck by how the report was immediately linked to the possibility that General Petreaus should be held accountable for this since it happened on his watch.
Then I had to ask, during the time when General and Pentagon were recently in the news what were they pointing out - the bad outomes from not attending to the Israel-Palestine conflict? Could someone be leaking this video now because of this Pentagon's stand???
Maybe I have grown cynical but I immediately remember a few days ago when everyone was saying tha General Petreaus and the Pentagon had "over-stepped their mark" by saying openly that the actions of the Netanayu administration were underming the interests of the US. At the time some suggested that the General would be muzzled by strong lobby and maybe forced to retire.
Could this Wikileaks be revenging for Gen Petreaus's pronouncements about the diverging intersts of Isreal and the US with respect to the Palestine-Israel conflict?? I do not know but it seems to me that most of the players in Washington are always just around the corner to back-stab each other. This politcal back and forth is strongest when people speaking out against the role of Middle-east players in endangering US interests and global peace.
I am just wondering if there is any link or this is just my active immagination
For those who have not paid attention to this story here is the Wikileaks report:
Yes many of you have received this new update from Wikileaks
"WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-site, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded. For further information please visit the special project website www.collateralmurder.com"