Wikileaks Soldier Reveals Orders for "360 Rotational Fire" Against Civilians in Iraq

[kpete]

Wikileaks Soldier Reveals Orders for "360 Rotational Fire" Against Civilians in Iraq

For OpEdNews: Ralph Lopez - Writer
Still breaking as there is no MSM reportage so far. Please Facebook/crosspost

Ethan McCord, one of the soldiers seen in the now-famous Wikileaks video in which two American Apache helicopters fire upon a relaxed, unhurried gaggle of men in Baghdad, has stated in an interview with World Socialist Website that he witnessed numerous times the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians in Iraq after IED attacks. McCord is on of the soldiers seen helping two wounded children after the attack. He has stepped forward with open opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and written a letter of apology for his part in the incident to the mother of the children, who has accepted his apology. The mother's husband was killed in the attack and found with his body shielding that of one of his children.

McCord said to reporter Bill Van Auken:

"we had a pretty gung-ho commander, who decided that because we were getting hit by IEDs a lot, there would be a new battalion SOP (standard operating procedure).He goes, "If someone in your line gets hit with an IED, 360 rotational fire. You kill every motherf*cker on the street." Myself and Josh and a lot of other soldiers were just sitting there looking at each other like, "Are you kidding me? You want us to kill women and children on the street?" And you couldn't just disobey orders to shoot, because they could just make your life hell in Iraq. So like with myself, I would shoot up into the roof of a building instead of down on the ground toward civilians. But I've seen it many times, where people are just walking down the street and an IED goes off and the troops open fire and kill them."

more:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Wikileaks-Soldier-Reveals-by-Ralph-Lopez-100616-298.html

[conscious evolution]

1. Another war criminal exposed.

Someday I hope to hear about the battalion commander facing war crimes charges.

[HopeHoops]

3. ^5

[gratuitous]

5. He's probably got a chest full of medals

War crimes? No, he's just carrying out his orders for the folks above him. And he's surely been rewarded. It's what the military does. While there may be some who object (even the interviewee mentions his reservations), they don't dare step out of line and denounce the war crime for what it is, because "they could just make your life hell." So, to get along, they all go along. But it's okay; we're pretty sure the survivors and the families of the victims won't harbor any ill will toward us. And if they do, then they're a bunch of ingrates who got what they deserved. USA, baby!

[951-Riverside]

21. In the end everyone is just "followin' orders"...

:eyes:

[Canuckistanian]

26. ^google

No, not the website, the number.

[HopeHoops]

2. "They're not humans. They're animals. They deserved to die."

Or something like that that Anikan (sp?) said after he slaughtered the sand people when he found his mother. That's a really sick attitude, but unfortunately it does take root in some people during war.

Still, I can't understand the mentality that people on the street, who are just as likely to be killed by the same IED, would somehow be responsible for it going off. That's just so wrong.

[ck4829]

7. Classic dehumanization tactic

Appears right before any crime against humanity.

[glitch]

8. Wrong on so many levels -- animals don't deserve to die, either.

Maybe if we can get rid of that paradigm killing each other won't be so "defensible".

[HopeHoops]

9. I'm with you on that one. My wife and I have been vegetarian for 20 years.

Our three daughters, 15, 17 (almost), and 19 are life-long vegetarians by their own choice. The older two sampled some meat when they were young, mostly out of curiosity, but not very much. As soon as they could identify what they were asking to taste, they were allowed to make the decision on their own. The youngest never wanted to try it.

[glitch]

10. Even if you're not a vegetarian, animals don't "deserve" to die, we've lost the gratitude

and genuine reverence for the animals we eat.

Although I am a vegetarian as well, I don't think this is a vegetarian issue -- it speaks to the shallow, callous view of everything on this planet as something to be used and discarded. From fellow humans to whole oceans to entire planets.

edit: but I am glad to meet some fellow travelers! :hi:

[HopeHoops]

11. Oh, I completely agree. Being around hunters changed my views significantly.

Before I even considered switching to vegetarian, I had a pretty grim view of hunters. That's mostly because I grew up in suburbs and it was all the asshole "tough guys" who went "hunting" and came back bragging about shooting stuff and leaving it in the woods to die because it wasn't big enough or ran off and they didn't feel like tracking it down.

I went to college in rural N.W. PA and there were two types of hunters there. There were the REAL hunters, who lived in the area and ATE what they killed. If they wounded an animal, they would hunt it down and finish it off. Then there were the type that I grew up with who would come up from Pittsburgh with a cooler full of beer and shoot at anything that moves. I always wondered how they were going to take home a deer on a BMW.

Anyway, I gained an appreciation for those who take responsibility for the animals they eat and started to think about myself - I just had to go to the grocery store to get an anonymous pile of random animal parts in plastic on a styro-tray. I decided the hunters were far more responsible than I was. That's not what made me change, but it contributed. The real catalyst was "Diet for A New America" by John Robbins, the heir to Baskin Robbins. He went vegan and rejected the family fortune. It is an excellent book - about half ethics and about half health information. We read it in December of '89 and never ate meat again.

[glitch]

13. I come from a family of real hunters, so I know what you mean and agree completely.

I despise "sport" hunters. I try not to, try to feel sorry for their pathetic lives, but it always comes back. Work in progress.

I also read John Robbins, only after becoming a vegetarian. What really stopped my meat-eating was pulling up next to a cattle carrier and hearing the cows crying. Sitting at the traffic light, having to listen to it and not be able to ignore it or drive away. That was it. FAR more respect for real hunters than shoppers.

However, full disclosure: I do eat local eggs from my organic farmer neighbor. One a day. And I do want to raise my own chickens and eggs someday. I got pretty sick from a too starchy diet (beans and rice every day for 20+ years isn't for every body). Now I eat a lot more greens and sprout my grains, nuts and seeds. And once a month I have wild salmon. So I am not a strict vegetarian, I wish I could still be, but I am more against the way meat is industrially produced than meat itself, although I don't ever eat mammals.
It's complicated.

[HopeHoops]

17. Oh shit. I'm not even talking about "sport" hunters. I'm talking FUCKING ASSHOLES!

They don't even qualify as hunters. Getting drunk and shooting at random shit isn't "hunting. I can shoot a damn gun and with pretty good accuracy. That doesn't make me a hunter.

As for diet, we do eggs and dairy. We still ate fish until '93 or so, at least long enough that my eldest had some tuna. Then it just stopped being "food" and seemed more like "cat food". Beans and rice certainly don't have to be the foundation. We eat them sometimes, but they certainly aren't the staple of our diet. All of the girls have gotten clean bills of health their entire lives, so we must be doing something right in that department.

If you're in need of some good recipes, all of the Molly Katzen books are great ("Moosewood Cookbook", "Enchanted Broccoli Forrest", and "Still Live with Menu"), and there's one called "Laurel's Kitchen", forget the author, but her name is probably Laurel something.

[KansDem]

4. So when do the war crimes trials begin?

I don't think this can be termed "collateral damage" but then I'm not a professional military commander...

[kgnu_fan]

23. When American people are united against War

The blame should not be placed on soldiers. We are all making this war, and those young men and women are sent on behalf of us who are totally unaware of their suffering and their situation.

[aquamarina]

6. And we wonder why suicide rates among soldiers have

skyrocketed. Simply FUBAR.

[WinkyDink]

12. All U.S. soldiers, post-Nuremburg, are BEHOLDEN to DISOBEY ILLEGAL ORDERS, e.g., SHOOTING

CIVILIANS.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. Nuremberg has been overturned.

[WinkyDink]

27. I've got a link; do you?

http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/militarylaw1/a/obeyingorders.htm

An order which is unlawful not only does not need to be obeyed, but obeying such an order can result in criminal prosecution of the one who obeys it. Military courts have long held that military members are accountable for their actions even while following orders -- if the order was illegal.

"I was only following orders," has been unsuccessfully used as a legal defense in hundreds of cases (probably most notably by Nazi leaders at the Nuremberg tribunals following World War II). The defense didn't work for them, nor has it worked in hundreds of cases since.

[FiveGoodMen]

29. Yes, but someone VERY highly placed in the current US government

promised that torture would not be prosecuted for those who were just following orders.

If I name the individual, this message will mysteriously disappear.

[Robb]

14. The interview was in April:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/apr2010/emcc-a28.shtml

:shrug:

[EFerrari]

16. So what? I don't get it.

[grahamhgreen]

18. Thank you Ethan McCord, you are a true American hero for standing up for what's right.

[kgnu_fan]

22. Thank you, too....

[BeFree]

19. Not the way I learned....

...to make friends and influence people.

Are we there to make friends?
Or are we there to influence them to hate us and mine their gold?

[kgnu_fan]

20. Every American needs to read Winter Soldier -Iraq and Afghanistan by IVAW

We sent them to hell and we need to stop this war.

This solider, Mr. Ethan McCord is a brave person.

Daniel Ellsberg has spoken about him today on Democracy Now, honoring his integrity and remorse.

<snip>
More seriously, two members of that same company of the Apache
assault―Josh Stieber and Ethan McCord, I think their names―who did an
absolutely admirable move, stimulated by Assange’s release and perhaps
Bradley Manning’s release of this videotape, they expressed remorse to
the Iraqi people for their participation in the activities of this
company. Ethan McCord was the very man―I don’t know if you showed him
just now―who actually got the two wounded children, ran off and got the
two wounded children from the vehicle, and saved their lives. And both
of them expressed great remorse for what they’d done and made the
statement, from their experience, that this sort of massacre was an
everyday occurrence. Now that’s what requires a real investigation. Is
that being done? The same will be true of Garani.

With Rumored Manhunt for Wikileaks Founder and Arrest of Alleged Leaker
of Video Showing Iraq Killings, Obama Admin Escalates Crackdown on
Whistleblowers of Classified Information
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/17/wikileaks_whistleblowers

[earth mom]

24. Those wars are genocide. Plain and simple.

:grr:

[L. Coyote]

25. War IS the crime.

[kgnu_fan]

28. That is the Truth

[blindpig]

30. Ah, collective punishment....