this is what war really looks like

War is nasty; imperialist hostile take-overs of other countries are despicable. When we sit and do nothing, we are culpable for murder. Our government has consistently ignored our voices and sacrificed its own citizens in the conquest for oil or whatever it is they claim to be doing. We have screamed and cried and pleaded and the only result is that the murder persists. Our government continues to wage a war on innocents. We have been given myriad excuses for the United States’ current role in this slaughter, but they are all bullshit. They tell us it is not a war, but that is a lie.

Some of you may have already seen this video, as it was on WikiLeaks and the Huffington Post covered it. It is not an easy video to watch. I am heartbroken and disgusted by what occurs here and it is clearly a common occurrence, judging by the way the soldiers eagerly request permission to shoot and laugh at a dead body being mulled over by a tank. Watching this video, and seeing what war actually is, provides a good lesson to those of us who sit comfortably distant from the atrocities our government commits.

In this video, men who are merely socializing are bombarded with bullets. A Good Samaritan who stops to help the wounded is also murdered, and his van is shot up though there are visibly children in the front seat. I can’t wholly fathom this horror. I see it, but know I don’t truly understand it.