Ethan McCord: And that building was really close to us and--
Cindy Sheehan: Were the missiles fired from drones? The Hellfires--
Ethan McCord: No, they were fired from--the Hellfires were on the Apache, the same Apache that fired on-- Now, one thing I do need to make clear is that when I came onto the scene, I did see an RPG and an AK-47 there. However, when there's peo-- My experience in Iraq is that when the locals see someone with a camera who may be a photographer or with a news agency, they always come out with their weapons, and it's kind of like showing off. Like, "Hey, look what I have. You know, make me famous" type of thing. "Put me in the magazines." And it's just to be noticed. My personal belief, I do not believe that these guys had anything to do with the attacks that we were facing earlier from a few blocks away.
Cindy Sheehan: Right.
Ethan McCord: These guys were walking around nonchalantly. They weren't even really gathering into any kind of formation to do anything to us. So--
Cindy Sheehan: The one thing that got me about that, what did you think when the video came out? Did you know it was coming out? Did you know that it was going to become such a big, you know, controversy at all before it happened?
Ethan McCord: No. What's crazy about--the way that I found out that the video had been released is I, back in April, I went and dropped my daughter off at school and I came home, you know, sat on my couch with a cup of coffee and turned on the TV to the news and the part that I caught immediately was me running across the screen with the little boy in my arms. And it was just like a huge slap to my face. You know, this was something that I had been trying to put behind me. You know, it's something that I remember vividly every night when I sleep. You know? And here it is on TV and, you know, people analyzing it who had no idea of anything, you know, what happened that day. You know, you have all these news supposed war analysts, you know, who are going over this video who know nothing of what happened that day. All they can go off of is basically the military reports that were put out on the incident, which the military reports are 99 point, you know, 9% of the time falsified to begin with.
Cindy Sheehan: Exactly. Well, what--? The thing that got me, like I was telling you, ________ that just a few days ago I got an e-mail from one of my son's buddies who was with him when he was killed, and he said, "You know, Miss Sheehan, I'm sorry, I don't want to cause you any more pain, but I just want to tell you that I think about it every day. I can't stop thinking about it. And I just want to let you know that I'm in pain also." So, you know, people might come back alive, but there certainly is a lot of issues that have to be dealt with to be able to heal and move on. And I know Vietnam vets who still have nightmares and have issues about what happened, so, you know, that's something that's just going to have to become part of you.
Ethan McCord: Right. You know I am getting--
Cindy Sheehan: You know, unfortunately.
Ethan McCord: I'm getting a little bit better. Actually what's been most healing for me, you know, other than the Army psychologist and whatnot who told me to rub a woobie and have a scented candle next to my bed so I know where I am when I wake up. You know, that's--
Cindy Sheehan: Right.
Ethan McCord: It's either that--you know you get either that advice or you get just pumped full of medication. And I didn't want to go with either of those. But my healing and my feeling better about what happened and my guilt for being a part of what happened to that family--I've been healing myself through speaking out, through telling my story and telling, you know, other people about all the atrocities that happen in war. You know, so that people can open their eyes and see exactly--You know, I'm not mad that this video was released, because this video is a daily depiction of war. This isn't just--
Cindy Sheehan: It's not--yeah, it's not unusual, is it?
Ethan McCord: No, it happens almost every day. The only thing that's unusual about this is that America got to see what happened.
Cindy Sheehan: Exactly. So, what I was telling you, the part that really got me in that video is when somebody in the helicopter says, "Well,"--something like there were kids in the van--"Well I guess that's what happens when you bring your kids to a war zone." Actually the U.S. brought the war zone to the kids.
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