Video of Blackwater Contractors Driving Over Iraqi Woman

You people do realize you're arguing with each other over something that happened 6 years ago, right? The Young Turds are infamous for bringing up old crap out of context and trying to score cheap political points.

This post is 22 pages of lose.

reply to post by tangonine


It must be the United States is bad syndrome that keeps it going.
If you check the internet, our country is ruled by evil reptilian overlord shape shifters hell bent on the earth’s destruction.No wonder people love to hate us

Originally posted by Swills
Here you'll see two videos of private contractors from Black Water in Iraq driving like crazy men through crowded Iraqi streets.

You do realize that this is how the U.S. Army/Marines also operate in the streets right? You don't know who is an enemy since they wear no uniform. A car pulling out from traffic might be part of an attack by blocking your escape route while other cars with weapons flank you.

They don't do it "because they don't respect the laws", but rather to save their own asses from a potential attack. It's pretty much standard in high risk areas, so next time before you speak, I'd suggest you know what you're talking about.

reply to post by Swills


Hurts AMERICANAZ to see this ignorance.. It makes it hard for another country to respect when this behavior is excepted. [COLOR=RED] an eye for an eye smh. I dont think any who act like this EVER CONSIDER this happening in the AMERICANAZ. So much hate -SAD FAIL-

As a Christian and former U.S. Navy Seal, Mr. Prince's lack of leadership in all matters concerning Blackwater and Xe in the Middle East is staggering. Long live the Military-Industrial Complex, eh? Keep living the dream Mr. Prince. I wouldn't want to stand in your way.

reply to post by Cosmic911


I don't have much respect for Mr. Prince or Blackwater/Xe either, but the fact remains that everything in the second video was SOP for not allowing oneself to get blocked into a KZ.

That mouthy cowboy in the gun turret in the first video really needs to find a line of work he suited for, though. If Prince were any kind of leader, that guy would have been out of Iraq so fast he left a hole in the air.

reply to post by nenothtu


Agreed! And while Blackwater/Xe tends to get all the media coverage, there are so many other private defense contractors perpetrating the same crimes and committing the same atrocities. These soldiers of fortune are representing the American people, our foreign policy, domestic sentiments, and the overall opinions of everyday American citizens. I don't presume to speak for anyone here, but I think its safe to say most people wouldn't want Mr. Prince and/or any of his employees representing the rest of us abroad. I hate to admit this, but I finally see how other people view Americans and America, and its not good. This makes me sad because I have a very different view of America and everything it stands for.

reply to post by Cosmic911


There are some decent companies out there, with stringent hiring practices, but they are few and far between, Most are just looking for warm bodies to pull triggers, jut cannon fodder. Since you are a former SEAL, you know as well as I do that the profession attracts and inordinate number of Dime Store Cowboys with dreams of blood and glory, and far too high an opinion of themselves. They get snatched up right along with the decent guys, even in the reputable outfits - although fewer make it over the bar in the reputable ones - and they tend to get weeded out of the reputable companies fairly quick.

The less than reputable companies keep them on, just to fill a contract, and then you get what we see at the end of the first video. I mean, seriously - if you're on a crew served weapon in a gun turret, there's really no call for getting mouthy - when you are really in control, and you know it, that just doesn't happen. "What are you lookin' at?"... if the guy is worth a crap, he's not saying anything, because he knows if the other guy is any danger at all, he KNOWS what the guy is looking at - the big end of a gun barrel. No need for stupid questions.

Reputable guys tend to weed themselves out of the disreputable outfits, and seek more professional pastures. For example, I know a fine young man that signed on for a year contract in Baghdad, but picked up his kit and came home after two months because he found himself in a sea of cowboys in that outfit. Dime Store Cowboys will get you killed - there just aren't any percentages in it. They're too busy getting in pissing contests and trying to look "cool" to take care of serious business. On the other hand, the same guy has pulled 3 contracts in Afghanistan without a hitch, but for another company.

In the end, though, it's the employer to blame for allowing unprofessional conduct - in this case the US government. If they gave a crap, they would enforce higher standards on the contracting companies. Since they don't, the get what they have coming in the court of public opinion.

Blackwater may have been decent at one time. I know they claimed higher standards in hiring, but practice may have been otherwise, and the claims only for promotional and sales purposes. IF that ever was the case, they've descended into mediocrity, just hunting warm bodies to fill contracts. I've never met Eric Prince, so I can't say if he's always been a showboat, or if the connections and traveling in rarified circles eventually got to him and ruined a professional. Either way, what Xe is now isn't worth associating one's self with in any capacity.

Drawing attention is for rock stars... or bait.

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
reply to post by Swills

 

Hurts AMERICANAZ to see this ignorance.. It makes it hard for another country to respect when this behavior is excepted. [COLOR=RED] an eye for an eye smh. I dont think any who act like this EVER CONSIDER this happening in the AMERICANAZ. So much hate -SAD FAIL-

So based on your logic / position its only bad when the US is involved. When its any other business / country the actions are permissible?

Originally posted by Xcathdra

Originally posted by Ophiuchus 13
reply to post by Swills

 

Hurts AMERICANAZ to see this ignorance.. It makes it hard for another country to respect when this behavior is excepted. [COLOR=RED] an eye for an eye smh. I dont think any who act like this EVER CONSIDER this happening in the AMERICANAZ. So much hate -SAD FAIL-

So based on your logic / position its only bad when the US is involved. When its any other business / country the actions are permissible?

NO not only a US issue, 1 thinks you misunderstand??? I am located within the Americanaz and experience first hand the hate felt towards this land mass. So when I say it hurts AMERICANAZ I mean it hurts to see this ignorance displayed knowing how much others feel negative towards this land mass already.

Originally posted by redneck13
Anyway, from your last reply your mental level is about 15 years of age regardless of what your physical age is.

Why? Because I pointed out that you are an unintelligent member that obviously hasn't read the T&C's on ATS that has a handle that fits his attitude?

Sorry I guess most of that message went over your head. Last I remember, (I wont go back and look) you were ragging my ass because I believed you didn’t have any rights (boo hoo). Like I just took a pacifier from a baby. I tell you, you do have rights and try to explain to you why. It goes over you head super genus. How many millions of people died just in WW2 alone for your rights? Who is attributable to all those deaths? Your funny little avatar, by an unknown artist we know why he is unknown (ha ha Hitler is so funny).. You want to squawk about your rights, but you have no idea how you came to have them and what price had to be paid.

Okay redneck.. firstly, you really need to stop being lazy and flip a few pages back because I never complained about not having rights. You have taken this debate somewhere out in left field.. besides calling me names, probably from being frustrated in trying to keep up with higher intellectuals, I'm not even sure what you're talking about. You said you would explain why I don't have rights then start talking about my avatar. You have ZERO solid points in anything you say.

In addition, if you look below the list of the millions of deaths Hitler was responsible for, you will see the sources for the material cited. Look it up, it’s called research. On the other hand, are you siding with the Iranian leadership about to post that the holocaust never happened?

Yes redneck.. anybody who went to middle school knows Hitler is "bad".. again we are talking about BLACK WATER and the IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN war.

You should try mentally sparring with someone more on your own level at first. Just seems to me you are trying to play mind games but you don’t have any ammunition. I guess this is my last reply to anyone with a Hitler avatar they should all be boycotted.

I absolutely REFUSE to do research for lazy members on ATS who think they know everything, and when anyone doesn't think like them they are automatically "stupid". Like I said, research the foreign policy and national interests of the U.S. and then study the U.S. involvement of most conflicts and you will see that the U.S. has ALWAYS done things for their benefit. I made a comment that Iran has a good set of balls by standing up to the U.S. because sometimes we need to know that we can't always push people around.

Not really sure how you can boycott an avatar, but I guess in your little mind that made sense too. I'm done arguing with someone who is obviously a troll, ignorant in general, and to this entire topic.

Originally posted by tangonine
You people do realize you're arguing with each other over something that happened 6 years ago, right? The Young Turds are infamous for bringing up old crap out of context and trying to score cheap political points.

This post is 22 pages of lose.

edit on 10-4-2012 by tangonine because: (no reason given)

Yeah I totally agree, also 9/11 happened over 10 years ago, let's forget about that too.

I agree that kid has a problem. I say he is a kid because by his voice in the video I estimate he is less than 25 years old. Looking at this it’s obvious the kid is out of line and disrespectful. A common condition among kids in the US but it doesn’t make it right. Parents don’t or won’t discipline their children as they used to do and some children are loosing moral values and respect, it is obvious some are nothing more than little brats. When those brats reach adulthood it’s to late to do anything with that mindset unless they experience a life, changing event and you have an adult brat. It’s a shame the teaching of the great generation have fallen to the wayside.
From my perspective as an American, which is probably more accurate then someone from another society, the kid has two simultaneous emotions overwhelming him. One he is scared #less thinking at any moment some one will take a shot at him and prematurely end his life. Similar to the thrill of skydiving. The other is the feeling of power in his weapons and being backed up by his buddies. He was once the little kid that was picked on at school now he is the bully and out of control with his new found feelings of power and fearlessness. Maybe it was his first run maybe, he is just an ahole. I am sure whatever the problem was with his individual situation it has long since been resolved some six years later.
Many of the postings on this thread have gone a skew more as if it is a get down on the US thread I think that is what the OP was hoping for and it is if you take everything at face value, disregarding any events surrounding this little snippet of history.
If you go back before WW2, the rise of Hitler was a situation that existed internally within the German political system. He could have been stopped before he hijacked and deceived a nation, by the German people themselves but he wasn’t. The problem was allowed to fester to the point he controlled an entire continent by pillaging the recourses of conquered nations and having the undesirable populations march themselves to their own deaths to be slaughtered as was economically possible at the time, in masses at human death factories. By waiting until later in the game to take out Hitler it cost somewhere around 50,000,000 lives (million!). How can anyone be against Going into Iraq and taking out Sad am? He was a brutal mass murderer in control of a country. Should we as in the case of Hitler stand by and let innocent people suffer?
Communism has fizzled itself out because it does not work. You cannot control a nation’s economic system in finite and you cannot control every individual person by big government alone. Where are the rights of the people, what are ones sense of existence and individualism in that you are born into becoming a government operated machine?
Why do we have issues with Islam or Sharia law? I spare you the gory details, but I found a non-American web site that covers
Islamic Sharia Law in Brief!
islammonitor.org...
Excerpt:
“Devout Muslims do believe that, Islam is the only true religion and all other religions are false and not accepted by the Allah. Therefore, Muslims are the superior human than any other humans on earth. According to Islamic Sharia and Koranic teachings—Christians, Jewish, and all other un-believers (Hindus idolaters etc are the worst) are less humans than Muslims and their rights are not the same as the rights of Muslims.”

Should we stand by and let man make the same mistakes repeatedly at the cost of human lives?
At the time, I am writing this, the Syrian government is killing around 100 people per day. People are dying now and no one is helping them. How long will this diseased government be allowed to fester? How many more people need to die before some one ousts this ruthless dictator?
We go to war against foreign governments because its people are suffering. How can you enjoy your good fortune while other humans are suffering at the hands of their own government? It is just not our way. If a population suffers at the hands of the government, we are game for the fight. We know every person on this earth deserves their God given rights and freedoms and no one should be able to take them away. That is who we are and that is why we do what we do.

reply to post by redneck13


Iraq's internal problems were not out fight. We already had Saddam buttoned up and pinned down, and he was about as much threat to the US as the average butterfly. We should have concentrated on the Taliban and AQ rather than allowing ourselves to be tied down on yet another front. It was bad strategy, and bad tactics. THAT war is why the US is getting a bad name as an invader now - had we just gone into Afghanistan after the Taliban and AQ, we could have justified it far easier than having an unjustifiable Iraqi invasion thrown into the mix to give the opposition more - and more accurate - ammo. This is not the soldiers faults - they go where they're sent and do what they have to - it's the inept leaderships' fault. Soldiers are just easier targets for the people who are scared crapless to take on the leaders.

In essence, the Iraq invasion was uncalled for and just a case of George Bush saying "What are YOU lookin' at?" on a national scale. Meanwhile, he took his eye off the ball, the prosecution of the war against the Taliban, and let it languish. Events in Iraq eclipsed Afghanistan, and gave the peaceniks way too much to work with.

Libya was another case of "What are YOU lookin' at?" on a national scale, this time under Obama. Libyan internal affairs were none of our concern. Libya USED to be a threat to America, but hasn't been so in a long time - until AFTER the "help" Obama gave the radicals. Now it will be again, sooner or later.

Now you want to tap Assad on the shoulder and say "what are YOU lookin' at?"? Bad idea, but do what you gotta. Syria has NEVER been a serious threat to the US, and again, Syrian internal problems are not ours or anyone elses but Syria's to deal with. I might not be against smuggling some arms in for the rebels, to level the field, but let them fight their own fights. No troops, no planes, no bombs, no US military involvement. We've still got Taliban left to wear out. No need to pick a fight with someone who ain't picking a fight with us. Don't take your eye off the ball.

Iran likewise. Yeah, they're mouthy and disagreeable, but let some other punk take care of that punk. Why stoop to their level and let the real wars go on auto pilot? Iran is like a fly biting a bull. Switch your tail and keep on grazing. Giving them so much attention just feeds their fantasies of relevance. If they do something stupid like trying to block Hormuz, then start erasing things in Iran until they see the light. If they want a nuke, let 'em have as many as they want, and sanction the crap out of them for breaking their word, but nothing more. I could care less if they use enriched uranium to sweeten their cereal in the mornings. If they launch a nuke beyond their borders, shoot it down and then start paving the country with glass. Until they launch beyond their borders, they're not any sort of credible threat, either.

reply to post by nenothtu


I think it's ok for Iran to have as many conventional weapons as they choose. If those nut jobs have their finger on the button, they will use it eventually. They need to bring on the anti-Christ through world Chaos or sum such non-sense. It’s not as those atomic particles stay put. Its spreads all over the planet and it has the gift that just keeps giving. It affects the entire planet it’s in all our interests. Russia and the US had two narrow escapes due to faulty equipment; it’s just a bad idea. China, Pakistan, India, this just makes the end game too easy for planet earth.

reply to post by Xcathdra


I want to say something..

The reason the US government used private contractors like Blackwater was to have people on the ground who could use tactics the military could not due to international law, and also gave the US complete deniability concerning said actions.

you cannot say "Black Water did a bad thing, or a few bad things but they were punished"

It is the policy itself that must change, the one where the US wants to circumvent international law through the use of "private contractors."

reply to post by Jameela


But its not just a job, its an adventure