General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: President Obama Indicts Sixth Whistleblower Under the Espionage Act [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)They helpfully pointed out in the video the AK-47 one of the civilians was wielding. A second civilian was holding a large over-the-shoulder video camera, and those have a very long history of getting civilians killed due to their resemblance to anti-tank weapons. I personally know of a civilian killed in Panama because he decided to pop out from behind cover to videotape a column of tanks, for example.
There was no 2nd pass on the initial group, because it was not necessary. They were dead. Some other civilians decided to come to their aid, and the logical assumption is wounded/dead soldiers would be aided by soldiers. So the Apache opened fire on them.
Besides....how on earth do you think a 2nd pass is any different? They weren't on the ground. They did not walk up to the victims, notice they were civilians, and then shoot again. They were in the air at long range and remained in the air at long range. There was no way to improve the identification for your theoretical 2nd pass to be any worse than the first.
But hey, at least you got to dis some faceless soldiers, right?
Long story short - the poor bastards in the video resembled soldiers enough to be misidentified and killed. That's why war is bad. People are killed whether or not they are in uniform.