This from Patriotsandheroes.
Much has been said about the video that WikiLeaks produced (edited and published), which they claim is “collateral murder”. Leave it to the fringe to twist the facts on a story to push their anti-war politics. Even the quote from George Orwell used at the start of the video, which should have hinted at the credibility of WikiLeaks, is used to push their politics before viewers see the edited video. As Fox News’ Megyn Kelly points out, the far-left website “missed” a few things, most importantly that the “innocent civilians” the Reuters reporters were with were insurgents carrying AK-47s and rocket propelled grenades (RPGs) as the video and audio from troops on the ground clear indicates. Instead of releasing the unedited raw footage of the 2007 incident in Iraq, WikiLeaks went to work to produce what can only be described as anti-war propaganda.
While the debate was “fair and balanced”, there is nothing balanced about Medea Benjamin, co-founder or Code Pink. Instead of discussing the facts of this incident like the fact that these individuals were armed, that there was ground confirmation of the weapons, that there had been attacks in this area by individuals carrying these weapons, that they were turning towards coalition forces down the street, Medea rants about how this was an “unprovoked attack”. What does she expect these insurgents were going to do with these weapons? As for the van that was attacked, contrary to what WikiLeaks and Medea claim about the Rule of Engagement, being unmarked as a rescue vehicle (which I doubt it was) makes it a fair target. As Fox News military analyst Chuck Nash stated, these vans were used by insurgents to conceal RPGs before attacks. Let’s also not forget that children are simply human shields to these people, something which they demonstrate time and time again.
While the language used by the Apache helicopter pilots may be unsettling, the rest of the video was not and should not be viewed as such. The reporters knowingly put themselves in danger by associating with insurgents who were in a war zone looking to attack coalition forces, so while their families grieve, let’s not pretend that they were innocent victims of an unprofessional and uncaring military force. Now that the truth has come out, will we see a retraction from those involved? Of course not. WikiLeaks and Code Pink don’t let the facts get in the way of the story they don’t want to tell, and while they have been shown to be liars and that the video was manufactured, the damage is already done. Jihadists will use this video to embolden others to take up arms against our soldiers, American, Canadian, etc who are fighting over there to protect us here at home, not only undermining the war effort, but put putting those on the front lines in more danger.
Once again we see the lengths the far-left is willing to go to smear our troops in uniform. Instead of supporting those who protect us, they have become apologists for groups that would like nothing more than to see them on the other side of that Apache helicopter camera lens… Pathetic…
UPDATE: The Jawa Report is following this story as well. While the fringe left are still claiming this as an example of “murder” on the part of the coalition forces, as Jawa points out, there is twenty minutes of audio and video missing from the WikiLeaks production. Are these radicals demanding to see the full unedited video of these events? Of course not. They prefer their own version of this fiasco, no matter what facts are missing, like the fact that those “unarmed civilians” were weapon carrying insurgents who were attacking coalition forces… Pathetic…
UPDATE: For those looking a far more detailed account of these events, including information from the military investigation of this event, the Mudville Gazette has a great piece on it. The article debunks WikiLeaks’ production through various facts from the investigation and camera stills from after the attack, which includes pictures of coalition soldiers rescuing the children from the destroyed van. Once again, the truth of this event doesn’t matter to the radical fringe. They would prefer that the facts not get in the way of their anti-war smears… Disgusting…
UPDATE: Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey, who has reported on this event previously, discusses the Stephen Colbert interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. While I would like to believe that Colbert was being serious, as Morrissey has stated, I am having trouble accepting this as serious journalism. That is the nature of the Colbert Report isn’t it? Satire? The problem with dismissing this entire exchange as satire is that the right questions were asked, the right conclusions were reached, and Colbert, to his credit, exposes Assange as a propagandist and a rabid anti-war activist. Here’s the problem with accepting this as satire is that, on its face, it does seem like a sincere journalist effort to expose this man. Could it be that those on the left, like Colbert felt betrayed when this “smoking gun” turned out to be anything but? A reverse Eric Massa? While the show is known for its satire and not its serious take on the news, there isn’t anything funny about the way Colbert called Assange a “manipulator” and telling the WikiLeaks founder “That’s not leaking, that’s a pure editorial”.
While I am not entirely convinced, I will for now applaud Colbert’s seriousness during this interview… Admirable…
UPDATE: While the videos I had posted previously have been removed from Youtube, there is this video from The Jawa Report of footage from the WikiLeaks video.
As anyone can see, these individuals were far from “unarmed civilians”, one carrying an AK-47 and the other an RPG. Obviously this evidence doesn’t change the fact that so many anti-war/ anti-American radicals will use the fiction created by WikiLeaks as to undermine the war effort and our troops, but at least those paying attention know the facts. Is it enough? Of course not. The truth isn’t as popular as these hateful lies being spread, and there is nothing anyone can do once these extremist make up their mind that this incident was “murder”… Pitiful…
[...] crosses the line; Treason is treason I had written about WikiLeaks’ previously when they edited leak footage to paint American sold… Suffice to say, I was disgusted with Julian Assange and his group of anti-war radicals. There is a [...]