More than meets the eye in video, but U.S. still needs to apologize

In my column on April 10 about an attack in Iraq in 2007 by two U.S. Apache helicopters which resulted in the death of 12 civilians, I said I had pored over the video of the attack and, although my eyes may not be that great, I couldn't see the weapons the American pilots said some of the civilians were holding.

Nor, I said, did I see any "furtive attempts to photograph coalition ground forces," as the Americans also had claimed, in the classified video obtained and released by the whistle-blower site, Wikileaks.org.Reuters news photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his driver, Saeed Chmagh, 40, were among those killed in the initial attack, and a short time later a van, which had stopped to help a wounded man, was demolished.

Well, it turns out my eyes weren't that great.

Shortly after the column appeared, Bruce van der Kooij sent along a couple of links in which the video is much clearer, revealing, even to my aging eyes, that some of the civilians were carrying weapons and someone was attempting to take pictures.

"An AK-47 and an RPG launcher are clearly visible. See: http://ur1.ca/ugumand http://i41.tinypic.com/343tb0j.j pg.," van der Kooij wrote.

"The right most picture in http://ur1.ca/ugumshows Namir with his camera peering around a corner as described in the report. The picture he took can be found at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File: NamirLastphoto. png (it was in the report which also contains a still depicting Namir crouching)."

As after viewing the new footage, I intended to do a follow- up item. I asked van der Kooij for some background on himself, such as where he lived and whether he had any military connections.

"I'm a 23 year old male from The Netherlands, Europe, and I have no military connections," he said in his reply. "I have a deep interest in United States foreign policy and specifically as it relates to the middle east.

"As for this incident. I accidentally stumbled upon the leaked video footage on April 5 and have since researched the subject extensively. Among other things I've read both military reports multiple times and transcripted a good amount of the included sworn statements (including those handwritten). I've also read (Washington Post reporter) David Finkel's firsthand account of the day. At the time he was embedded with the 2-16.

"Together with several other editors I have been working on improving Wikipedia's coverage of the event."

Van der Kooij said he believed permission for the helicopters to engage should not have been given because it was based on false information.

"The team requested engagement solely based on the presence of weapons. Their sworn statements on this are contradicting, saying they requested permission after Namir displayed hostile intent, which is demonstrably false.

"In any case, I believe the team's response was disproportional to the threat at hand. I personally believe they should have let ground forces take care of the situation. Though that would most likely have changed the outcome, it also would have meant that in a hostile situation the ground forces would have run more risk.

"The team should not have opened fire on the van but shown restraint. However, as evidenced from the sworn statements some of the crew was under impression that the van may have been the same vehicle that was described to be picking up and dropping off hostile forces."

Van der Kooij said all crew members also stated they saw the people from the van collect weapons.

"From the video we can see this is clearly not the case. To me this all seems very, very wrong," he concluded.

It is a view shared by one of the foot soldiers who arrived on the scene that day, the one who pulled a wounded girl and boy out of the van demolished by shellfire from the helicopter.

Former U.S. Army specialists Ethan McCord and Josh Stieber have co-authoredAn Open Letter of Reconciliation and Responsibility to the Iraqi People.

Portions of the letter follow: "To all of those who were injured or lost loved ones during the July 2007 Baghdad shootings depicted in the Wikileaks video, we write to you, your family, and your community with awareness that our words and actions can never restore your losses.

"We are both soldiers who occupied your neighborhood for 14 months. Ethan McCord pulled your daughter and son from the van and, when doing so, saw the faces of his own children back home. Josh Stieber was in the same company but was not there that day, though he contributed to your pain and the pain of your community on many other occasions.

"There is no bringing back all that was lost. What we seek is to learn from our mistakes and do everything we can to tell others of our experiences and how the people of the United States need to realize what they have done and are doing to you and the people of your country. We humbly ask you what we can do to begin to repair the damage we caused?

"We have been speaking to whoever will listen, telling them that what was shown in the Wikileaks video only begins to depict the suffering we have created. From our own experiences, and the experiences of other veterans we have talked to, we know that the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war. This is the nature of how U.S.- led wars are carried out in this region.

"We acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones as we tell Americans what we were trained to do and carried out in the name of God and country. The soldier in the video said that your husband shouldn't have brought your children to battle, but we are acknowledging our responsibility for bringing the battle to your neighbourhood and to your family. We did to you what we would not want done to us."

McCord, interviewed on the CBC'sThe Current,said the soldier with him threw up when they discovered the wounded children in the van. He said he and Stieber now have more than 3,000 signatories to their letter.

Listening to pilots and those manning the guns as the video rolled on, I was taken aback by the callous comments, the blatant disregard for human life.

I couldn't understand why the helicopters would shoot up a van, a seemingly Good Samaritan simply stopping to assist a wounded man the Americans actually wanted to go for a weapon so they could take him out.

McCord says this is all part of the training, the desensitizing of any human instinct.

The U.S. invaded Iraq on false pretenses, that of weapons of mass destruction, and has caused much hardship for the Iraqi people and its own.

It should be the one apologizing.