These clips are so tame. This hardly compares to free fire zones, waterboarding, or naked prisoner sandwiches. What's more deserving of pentagon scrutiny is why kids living in a city consider a bottled water precious enough to sprint 8 city blocks for. How about we spend less time and energy focusing on mean-spirited but relatively harmless teasing and more on providing adequate utilities.

The sooner we get out of Iraq, the fewer children will have to suffer the indiginity of being out of breath for several minutes. Better still, when the troops come home we can foster their reintegration to the civilian world by having them taunt fat American children from fast moving trucks. Perhaps a Veterans Affairs-sponsored vocational program in ice cream truck driving?

With GL. Clearly, the guys with the water are just nasty older kids, probably not much more than 8 or 9 years older than the children they're taunting? Their CO ought to make them run barefoot through those same streets.

There second, stone-throwing video is considerably more disturbing to me. Not because the soldier is talking about use of deadly force - I'm sure shooting his rifle into the air or ground would be more than enough to scare the kids away - but because there are children, throwing large rocks at these vehicles' windshields. Not to be trite, but that's dangerous.

Remember when we used to talk about "hearts and minds"? Wow, that seems like a very long time ago.

That I wouldn't expect to see or hear from very young men put in a no-win situation. They're not Ghandi, fer Chrissakes. They're going to talk that way. Until they start shooting at the kids, I have no problem.

Because when that Iraqi kid in the second clip yelled "FUCK YOU!", and the G.I. responded in kind, I just about died laughing. Sorry.

By the way, if you'd like to see some REAL brutality (perpetrated against rock-throwing boys by the Brits in Basra, but still), get a load of THIS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEIYMF-WkW0&eurl=

WARNING: This is extremely unpleasant to watch. It makes what the guys did in these two clips look like Christmas Morning In Baghdad.

Here's another unsettling one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JStS8tBRMQQ&mode=related&search=

WARNING: not for the faint of heart

Yes, there's nothing more mirth-inspiring than watching four boys - ages 10 - 13 from the look of them - get the living SHIT stomped out of them as the lizard taping the whole thing practically salivates over the spectacle.

Twit.

Please accept my sincerest apologies Rob. Before posting a link to a soldier-produced song and dance routine, I should have made some token statement about how gigantic men with batons and body armor beating up a few outnumbered children is a bad thing -- which, by the way, would have been really interesting to read. The only possible explanation for my omission is that I find child abuse "mirth-inspiring," and that I am a twit.

Or maybe, just maybe, you're being hypersensitive, humorless, and needlessly lacking in civility towards your interweb cohorts.

My "apology" is of course sarcastic. If you want to show that deep down you're a nice guy, yours won't be.

Your Pal,

Gordon_Lightfood

OK, the first clip of the US soldiers teasing and screwing with kids is awful. Just what we don't need in a country where so many of the people hate us.

But I don't think the video of the soldiers commenting while children throw stones at them is bad at all. In fact, I think it's a pretty good example of US soldiers doing things right. They're provoked. They are understandably mad about the situation. They complain bitterly to each other. And they follow orders by not responding.

I don't understand why anyone would complain about their behavior. Is it because they're mad? Soldiers have a perfect right to complain to each other about being the target of rock-throwing kids. The fact that they are reacting with words and not violence does credit to the US military.

This is how people behave after years of stress in combat situations. This is the precursor to the massacre syndrome. The alienation of the civilian to the troop becomes so deep and so anger infused that eventually real bad things happen. What you witness in these videos is the rule, not the exception to the rule. The only thing holding most of these troops from exploding on the civilians are the rules of engagement and infused military discipline. Welcome to occupying army 101.

Couldn't have written it better myself, fuckwad.

Apology? I got your apology right HERE .

You must be very popular.