Wikileaks, the controversial organization known for leaking mountains of classified and private information, has released 2007 gun camera footage of the killing of a group of civilians, including two Reuters reporters.
The video appears to depict a case of confirmation bias by the American helicopter pilots. Confirmation bias is the tendency of the human mind to unconsciously prefer information reinforcing existing beliefs. In this case, the fact the pilots were looking for armed insurgents made them predisposed to believe that any item carried by the persons were weapons.
Christopher R. Albon is a political science Ph.D. specializing in armed conflict, public health, human security, and health diplomacy.
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{ 4 comments }
That was pretty intense. I wonder what will come of it. There’s a 2006 quote by Howard Zinn about collateral damage in war: “the resulting deaths of women and children may not be intentional. But neither are they accidental. The proper description is “inevitable.” ”
Whatever people may think of Zinn and his politics, this particular quote seems pretty unassailable.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/09/02/war_is_not_a_solution_for_terrorism/
Great quote. I actually had a problem deciding how to describe the deaths.
Accidental? Indiscriminate? Both words don’t accurately describe the attack.
Oh, yeah, look at those dead bastards…
Nice…
Nice… Good shooting…
Thank you…
The neutrality of your comments, analyzing the facts that for others including entire countries are tragedies, taking the opportunity to give a mini lecture on what is confirmation bias, and then to think in abstract terms if these deaths are accidental or indiscriminate really alarmed me. I do not think you need to be a PhD candidate all the time and try to get the academic side of a tragedy. I think we should better why a society has to train those guys in the chopper to the point that a M3 Bradley driving over a corpse is a funny thing. I think these are indiscriminate killings. I think an scene of an Apache helicopter completely loaded, facing 8 people in the ground do not reflect a situation that merited an engagement, it is clear that the civilians were unarmed and that they did not have a RPG 7 in their hands. An RPG and an AK would have been clearly visible for anyone that has engaged in war but these guys did not see.
Well it is true they really did see what they wanted to see. Yes, sure the confirmation bias thing you will insist, and I insist that since my perspective this is not the point. The point is why a common guy that some 7 years ago finished high school, is brainwashed to the point to see something completely different in that screen and decides to kill 12 people and then be congratulated.The issue here, I think, is how we approach health, what is your concept of it, why this tragedy has to be leaked to be known because the DoD covered the facts, and what are the real causes of ill health and death.
This is usually a good blog, yet, I feel surprised, alarmed, and kind of disappointed with this post. I disagree with some of your previous posts, but this one is really alarming. Do not take these words as an attack but a criticism based on my own experience witnessing the horrors of war.
Daniel
Hey Daniel,
First, don’t worry about me taking it as an attack. Publish enough online and you grow an impenetrable hide.
Second, do I get angry? Absolutely, I scream at the screen and bash my hands on the keyboard. But, then I go for a run, drink a beer, vent to my wife, and get then back to work.
When tornadoes strike, civilians curse the sky, professionals roll up their sleeves. I don’t work with my emotions on my sleeve. Roll them up and figure out how we can do better.
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