On July 12, 2007, two U.S, AH-64 Apache helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Bagdad conducted an attack known as the Bagdad airstrike after the Iraq War during the Iraqi Insurgency.
In 2010, videos of the attack were released on WikiLeaks by an U.S Army Soldier named Chelsea Manning, and was spread worldwide. The video shows, what was said to be classified, 39 minutes of gunshot footage. Manning in 2013 testified that the videos were not classified. The video showed the crew killing several civilians including two Reuter Journalists and laughing at the casualties.
WikiLeaks is n international company that has created a space for news leaks and classified media to be posted anonymously. Creator, Julian Assange became responsible for the videos and was tracked down by the U.S Government. He is not a U.S citizen and so the government has pinned false allegations on him to keep him locked up in London, England. Assange has been labeled a whistleblower.
Reuters demanded an investigation after the attack and losing Namir Noor-Eldeen, Iraq War photographer for Reuters, and journalist Saeed Chmagh. Authorities of the U.S Military saw the murders to be the Law of Armed Conflict and their rules of engagement.
While watching the videos in class the silence spoke for itself. In the room you were able to hear a pin drop. What happened was not okay. The U.S military has claimed the camera Namir was using looked like a gun. Through the video you are able to tell that this did not look like a gun and the attack was unprovoked This was a collateral murder and the actions are indescribably wrong.
Power can lead to greatness or less than. A concept that has been around forever. We spend a lot of time praising our military, however, it is important for us to to keep them in check when the power goes to their head. The bottom line is, these men had no right to do what they did and their actions should have consequences. This is real life , not a video game.
