By Anthony Wagner, U.S. Army, Iraq Veteran Against the War

I know that these incidents happen more often than not. This is reality, not some video effigy edited to demonize soldiers. What you see in this video and the entire occupation is illegitimate.

Atrocities like this were commonplace in 2004-2005 when I was there with the First Cavalry Division, it was common in 2007 and innocent casualties are still piling up. The continued Insurgency in
Iraq is fed by these kinds of atrocities.

If a military force came to my neighborhood in Chicago with this kind of unchecked aggression, there  would be a formidable insurgency here too. Most of us have more in common with the people murdered in this video than we do the bourgeois right-wing madmen propagating their destruction.

The Rules Of Engagement (ROE) do not protect the innocent people of Iraq. How do you think we’ve managed to cause such a staggering death toll in that country? It’s shocking to hear people try to come up with ways to improve the ROE so that we, the soldiers, might become kindler-gentler-more accurate killers in a country we had no right to be invading and occupying in the first place.

If this video, which I find to be unbiased, isn’t a wake up call to the citizens of the United States, I don’t know what is. I’ve patrolled the streets of Baghdad not far from where this happened and I’ve witnessed innocent civilians become Collateral Damage.

I find it abhorrent and disgusting that I’ve seen more about a philandering golfer in the mainstream media than I have this video. If this were a video showing American civilians being ripped to shreds by 30MM bullets, the outrage would be overwhelming.

Personally, I’m outraged either way. If our government had it’s way, this leaked footage would never see the light of day. Collateral Murder has the potential to fuel the insurgency and it’s easy to see why. This leaked footage further cements my resolve to speak out against these illegal and immoral wars for EMPIRE.

U.S. operations in Iraq have amounted to sociocide and the whole world is realizing this. Of course, it doesn’t have to go on like this, I still have a semblance of faith in humanity. Everyone has a voice in this and it will take the voices of many to put an end to the most privatized war in modern history. Actions like these will continue to be carried out by trained killers until we put a stop to them. Will we learn from our past or are we destined to repeat it time and time again?